L4GG Litigation Director Amy Powell traveled to El Paso as a lawyer. She came back with dust in her hair, dirt in her lungs, and a clearer sense of what justice actually requires. Here, she shares a first-hand account of what she witnessed inside one of the country's largest immigration detention facilities — and why more attorneys are urgently needed.
Bodily autonomy, the fundamental right to make decisions about one’s own body without coercion or harm, and health equity, the principle that everyone is able to attain their full potential for health and wellbeing, depend on freedom from state violence. State violence refers to the use of force, intimidation, and oppression by a government against citizens and noncitizens alike, and is deeply entangled with white supremacy, policing, and criminalization. These systems are fundamentally incompatible with the tenets of bodily autonomy and health equity, as they function as root causes of health disparities by undermining community health—heightening psychological distress, worsening pregnancy outcomes, and restricting access to medical care.
Over the past several weeks, Minnesota has become an unsettling mirror of something deeper than a series of federal enforcement operations. Numerous videos have circulated on social media documenting hostile interactions between agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and members of the public: officers confronting people who are filming them, issuing verbal threats, or attempting to seize their phones by force.
The Trump administration is preparing a new rule that would block asylum seekers from obtaining work permits while their cases are pending. If enacted, this change would eliminate one of the only remaining lifelines in the U.S. asylum system. For over 30 years, asylum seekers have been able to apply for work permits after a certain waiting period. This proposal would undo that—turning survival into a privilege, and waiting into a punishment.
A blog post by Estuardo Cifuentes, Project Corazon Program Manager
Estuardo Cifuentes, Project Corazón Manager, speaks on the devastating impact of the reimplementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). As a survivor of the program, Cifuentes sheds light on how MPP exposes migrants to violence, denies due process, and violates fundamental human rights, calling for urgent action to end this inhumane policy.
