IRTF News

So far in 2022, at least 101 people have been killed, according to the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz). Indepaz says 1,328 social leaders – a term used to describe political activists, community representatives and rights defenders – have been killed since the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group. “Social leaders tend to be the people who stand up for their communities, so they put themselves in a very difficult situation because of their leadership,” Sergio Guzman, a political analyst and director of the Colombia Risk Analysis consultancy group, told Al Jazeera. “They are targeted by illegal organisations [in order] to assert their total control, instil fear in the population and subdue them.”

For over three months Governor Abbott of Texas has been busing migrants from the southern border to Washington, DC as part of a cruel and racist publicity stunt. Since this began on April 13th, 2022, Texas has sent ~120 buses carrying around three thousand people, including children and infants. Two months ago, Governor Ducey joined Abbott and began busing people from Arizona as well. In response, DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) community members, part of the migrant solidarity mutual aid network, have been showing up for migrants—receiving the buses at all times of day, sorting donations, finding housing, and spending over $260,000 of grassroots raised money to support them while the DC and federal governments do nothing. On July 12th, the organizers took their second day off in three months to 1) rest and recover after many months of mental and physical exhaustion, 2) quarantine after a significant portion of the volunteers were exposed to COVID-19 over the weekend, and 3) protest the unsustainable conditions created by the lack of government response.

For several months now, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has pursued a campaign of mass arrests. Under his recently extended state of emergency, police have arrested more than 43,000 people on suspicion of membership in the gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18, which the government classifies as terrorist groups. Grounds for arrest include having tattoos, living in neighborhoods with gang presence or simply “looking like criminals.” Amnesty International has reported on human rights abuses, including indefinite pretrial detention, trials in absentia and lifting sentencing restrictions on minors as young as 12. At least 59 people have died in custody, according to the Salvadoran human rights group Cristosal.

We, the undersigned 87 organizations committed to human rights, migrant, and refugee rights, are writing ahead of your bilateral meeting at the White House to urge you to center your discussion of migration on human rights, protection, and expansion of legal pathways. While migration across the hemisphere poses challenges, the United States and Mexico can and should be leaders in the protection of migrants and refugees and make reality the rightsrespecting commitments in the four pillars of the recently signed Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection. In the face of these tragedies, our organizations remain gravely concerned that, despite the stated commitments of your administrations, including those made in the recent Los Angeles Declaration, to promote regular pathways for migration, access to international protection, and humane migration management, the United States and Mexico are instead continuing ineffective and unlawful deterrence-based policies and practices that disregard and subvert international refugee and human rights law and endanger migrants and asylum seekers.

The exclusion and violence suffered by people from the trans population is addressed with organization and political participation, however, the murders against them continue in impunity. The State does not respond to their demands, so there is already talk of a transfemicide. A community that suffers from stigma, discrimination and hatred is the trans population. Misunderstood and mocked, they are Guatemalan citizens abandoned by the State, without the right to work, health, housing, or a decent life. 

The Supreme Court last week rejected a challenge to President Joe Biden’s effort to stop the previous administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program, which forced many asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings before U.S. immigration judges. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday said that the current policy will continue for the next few weeks. Mayorkas said the “Remain in Mexico” program “has endemic flaws and causes unjustifiable human tragedy.” In the meantime, migrants will continue to go through immigration enforcement proceedings.

More than 900 construction workers in Honduras building a new U.S. embassy went on strike on Wednesday and Thursday to demand fair treatment. The workers in Honduras say they were forced to sign illegal labor contracts that do not protect them from work injuries, according to HCH. The workers are also asking for permanent contracts. Some were made to sign hourly contracts, which is also illegal, according to Radio America. 

Colombia’s Truth Commission has presented its final report on the country’s long-running civil conflict, announcing that at least 450,664 people were killed over nearly six decades of fighting. The commission was set up as part of the 2016 peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP). It was tasked with documenting abuses and explaining what caused the conflict to persist for so long.