IRTF News

A new interactive tool from Relevant Research tracks the growing number of deaths inside ICE's civil immigrant detention system, with links to source material and downloadable data. https://www.detentionmortality.com/

Following a devastating earthquake near the border of Chocó and Valle del Cauca, journalist David Escobar recounts navigating the destruction in Cali to ensure his family's safety while witnessing both heart-wrenching loss and community-driven rescue efforts across the city. He contrasts the selflessness of ordinary citizens helping one another in the streets with the callousness of politicians using the natural disaster to post divisive messages on social media.

“Despite what warmongers want you to believe, the Monroe Doctrine undermines the partnerships needed to confront our complex challenges,” said Rep. Delia Ramirez. “We must change course.”

A bill intended to halt the supposed threat of “organized retail crime” would put ICE in charge of the federal response. The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, or CORCA, which was introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa last year with wide bipartisan support, would give Immigration and Customs Enforcement authority to coordinate federal efforts against large-scale shoplifting. Civil libertarian groups are disturbed by legislation they say constitutes a major expansion of domestic surveillance and policing by DHS.  “This would formalize a mechanism for retailers to share data about consumers with DHS.”

DHS deploys AI in immigration enforcement largely untested, undisclosed, and unreviewed, a preview of how AI could reshape executive power. 

In a recent article, Cullen O’Keefe, Alan Rozenshtein, and Christoph Winter introduced the concept of “ExecAI:” the use of advanced AI systems within the executive branch and the ways those systems could erode the separation of powers. They ask what happens when presidential directives can be executed without the institutional friction that human decision-makers often provide: opportunities for dissent, whistleblowing, meaningful attribution when errors occur, and enough time for courts to intervene.

The piece presents these as emerging challenges, but the immigration system offers a concrete case study because it already combines broad executive discretion, limited constitutional protections, and the rapid adoption of AI-enabled decision-making.

But the federal government has not needed frontier AI to begin reshaping executive power. It has done so through ordinary procurement and existing immigration authorities.ImmigrationOS, ICE’s operational platform, combines government records and commercial data into a single picture that helps prioritize enforcement targets. Hurricane Score, an algorithm previously used in ICE’s Alternatives to Detention program, estimated the likelihood that participants would abscond based in part on demographic and case-related information, including characteristics that raise significant equal protection concerns. And the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Asylum Text Analytics tool flags asylum applications for additional scrutiny and monitors attorneys and preparers as a network rather than reviewing cases in isolation.

Honduras: After another massacre of smallholders – who are subjected to violence from palm oil firms and drug traffickers – the country’s new Trump-backed government has criminalised community leaders

From Austin Kocher: Welcome to the weekly segment called This Week by the {Immigration} Numbers. I’ll highlight some of the main takeaways from the week’s news that you might have missed, but do it in a unique way. Rather than try to summarize everything, I’ll pick a handful of figures each week that best capture where things are moving, explain why they matter, and provide a source where you can learn more. If you have a number to add to the mix or have a question about any of the numbers here, let me know in the comments.

Diggers are working at what campaigners call a place where ‘human life, biodiversity and the environment will be sacrificed’

On 19 June 1981, a group of women were interrogated, raped and murdered by soldiers. In the second, on 25 July 1981, about 25 armed men entered homes and opened fire, killing about 45 civilians. Their remains are still being exhumed but most of the victims were women and children.

Now, the community fears the authorities want to bury its history under tons of rubbish.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, the convicted drug trafficker pardoned by President Donald Trump last December, came home with a skip in his step after receiving a pardon  despite moving 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras while he was in offfice.