IRTF News

This article by InSight Crime reviews the conspiratorial nature of the Berta Cáceres murder ten years ago. In February 2025, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights announced the creation of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos Independientes – GIEI) responsible for producing this report. ary 2025 The report’s investigators tied one deposit in the amount of $2.6 million that development banks made to the account of CONCASA (a shell company) in December 2015 directly to Cáceres’ murderers.

Drawing on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., FOR an Religious Peace Fellowship oppose the U.S. attack on Venezuela, urging nonviolent engagement, humanitarian solidarity, and an end to imperial military interventions.

A sharp reflection on how U.S. officials have long responded to state violence by blaming the dead—-from the murder of churchwomen in El Salvador to the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE—-and a warning that such lies can only hold for so long.

A new report by Austin Kocher evaluating the latest ICE detention data gives insight on ICE's methodolgy and schemes . The Trump administration continues to represent aggressive immigration enforcement practices across the country as necessary to address threats to national security and public safety. The available data so far do not support these claims. There are periods of tremendous surges in the growth of non-criminal detainees, and, except for the beginning of last February (2025), no corresponding surge in the detention of people with criminal convictions.

Due to the dramatic and chaotic ending to the recent presidential election in Honduras, the international human rights organization Global Exchange and the Center for the Study of Democracy wrote a report stating that Honduras is navigating the collision of corporate lawsuits, historical corruption, and the urgent struggle for democracy.

The report concludes that Honduras is trapped between the desire to reform and a pushback from international capital and domestic elites. To break this “siege,” Global Exchange recommends that Honduras withdraw from international arbitration treaties that prioritize profits over human rights; abolish ZEDEs to restore full national sovereignty; establish an independent mechanism to protect human rights defenders; and prosecute those responsible for the murders of activists, and urges the international community, especially the U.S., to respect Honduran sovereignty and allow fair elections.

Global Exchange’s report serves as both a warning and a call to action to stand with the Honduran people in their struggle for democracy and dignity.

The Trump administration aims to send thousands of immigrants to the Guantánamo Bay Detention Center where fifteen men remain in indefinite detention, 24 years since the abusive and torture prison opened.

Congress can step up and assert its authroity. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia has introduced resolutions in the Senate seeking information on the human rights practices of six countries to which the U.S. has reportedly deported immigrants who have no ties to those countries. Using a process under Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act, a US senator can force debate and a vote to scrutinize and restrict security aid to countries engaging in “gross violations of human rights,” requiring the State Department to report on these issues.

Even if the resolutions fail, they allow senators to raise concerns on the floor about sending immigrants to places where they may be tortured. NRCAT has issued an action alert urging supporters to contact their senators about it.

Most of the Americas have suffered from interference from their powerful northern neighbour --and are usually the worse off for it. The US bombardment of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, follow a long history of interventions in South and Central America and the Caribbean over the past two centuries. But they also mark an unprecedented moment as the first direct US military attack on a South American country.

In a related article, the authors explain how US sanctions have caused one of the most severe peacetime economic contractions in modern history, contributing directly to a public health crisis. This economic warfare is a primary driver of the displacement of more than 7 million Venezuelans, creating the Western hemisphere's largest migration crisis. 

The tensions between the U.S and Venezuela have only intensified as the U.S. uses political, economic, and escalating military strategies to target the Venezuelan government, who they accuse of corruption and drug trafficking into the U.S. This has caused immense hardships against the Venezuelan people; however they continue to stand strong and urge for just and lasting peace.

This list of 17 lawsuits filed over immigration issues in Ohio in 2025 provides insight on the obscurity of reasoning that leads to people being detained. 

In her 2024 book Sanctuary People: Faith-Based Organizing in Latina/o Communities, Dr. Gina Pérez, Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Oberlin College,  presents a practical political strategy to cultivate safety, trust and belonging in all communities. It includes both physical sanctuary, where sacred space becomes a place of refuge, and a broader commitment to accompaniment and public advocacy.

Here Dr. Pérez reflects on the Catholic Church’s Year of Jubilee of Hope. Pope Leo XIV frames migrants and refugees as “messengers of hope”—a powerful challenge to the stigmatizing narratives that characterize migrants and global migration in our world today.

Dr. Pérez also highlights essays by two young IRTF student interns who are living out their commitment to “welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable…”  By participating in acts of accompaniment and collaboration across faith and secular communities, they credit IRTF with playing a significant role in their formation to become leaders in a new generation for social justice. Student intern Lucia reflects: “IRTF has been an indispensable part of discerning the world I want to live in, the role I will have in that, and the way I hope to go about it.”