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Press Release

DHS Should End Solitary Confinement, Says Nearly 200 Organizations

The U.S. government should immediately and publicly commit to ending the use of solitary confinement in U.S. immigration detention, demanded a coalition of 194 medical, academic, faith, human rights, civil rights, and immigration groups in a letter to U.S. President Biden, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).   The coalition mobilized […]

March 1, 2024
Asylum
Press Release

ICE Used Solitary Confinement More Than 14,000 Times Since 2018: Report

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) used solitary confinement at least 14,264 times from 2018 to 2023, according to a new report issued by experts at Physicians for Human Rights, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Medical School.  The report, “Endless Nightmare”: Torture and Inhuman Treatment in Solitary Confinement in U.S. Immigration Detention, documents that people […]

February 6, 2024
Asylum
Press Release

ICE usó confinamiento solitario más de 14.000 veces desde 2018: Informe

El Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (ICE) usó el confinamiento solitario por lo menos 14.264 veces desde 2018 a 2023, según un nuevo informe expedido por expertos Médicos por Derechos Humanos (PHR), la Facultad de Derecho de Harvard (HLS), y la Facultad de Medicina de Harvard (HMS). El informe, “Pesadilla […]

February 6, 2024
Asylum
Report

“Endless Nightmare”: Torture and Inhuman Treatment in Solitary Confinement in U.S. Immigration Detention

Executive Summary The United States maintains the world’s largest immigration detention system, detaining tens of thousands of people in a network of facilities, including those managed by private prison corporations, county jails, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). At the time of […]

February 6, 2024
Asylum, Torture
Press Release

White House Must Not Sacrifice U.S. Asylum System in Funding Negotiations: PHR

In response to reports that the White House and congressional leaders are considering overhauls to the U.S. asylum system as a compromise to secure funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, the following quote is attributable to Michele Heisler, MD, MPH, medical director at PHR and professor of internal medicine and public health at the University […]

December 13, 2023
Asylum
Press Release

PHR Urges U.S. Congress to Protect the Right to Asylum in Funding Negotiations 

As U.S. Congress continue funding negotiations, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is alarmed at reports that aid to Ukraine could be withheld unless the bill includes permanent and devastating changes to the U.S. asylum system. In the face of potentially devastating changes, PHR is strongly urging lawmakers to safeguard the right to asylum. For more […]

November 29, 2023
Asylum
Press Release

Major Settlement with Survivors of Family Separation Policy Will Assist Healing: PHR

In response to news that the lawyers representing asylum-seeking families separated by the Trump administration had reached a settlement deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, the following statement is attributable to Tessa Wilson, senior program officer of the PHR asylum program: “PHR had long called on the U.S. administration to provide redress to victims […]

October 17, 2023
Asylum
Press Release

Biden Administration Constructs Physical and Legal Barriers to Asylum: PHR

In response to reports that the Biden administration will continue construction of border barriers in Starr County, Texas, the following quote is attributable to Tessa Wilson, senior program officer with the asylum program at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR):  “The Biden administration’s decision to waive 26 federal laws for faster border wall construction in Texas contradicts […]

October 6, 2023
Asylum
Report

Mobilizing Health Workers to Safeguard Rights

For more than 35 years, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has worked at the intersection of medicine, science, and law to end human suffering, save lives, and secure justice and universal human rights for all. Read about our impact in our 2022 Annual Report.

June 22, 2023
Asylum, Attacks on Health Care, Mass Atrocities, Persecution of Health Workers, Reproductive Justice, Sexual Violence, Torture
Fact Sheet

What Constitutes a High-Quality, Comprehensive Medico-Legal Affidavit in the United States Immigration Context?

This fact sheet summarizes the findings of the first published multi-sectoral consensus-building exercise on medico-legal affidavits in the U.S. immigration context. Medico-legal affidavits are underpinned by an expert medical evaluation which can objectively contextualize trauma and corroborate accounts of abuse; they are a critical component in immigration proceedings where somebody is seeking protection on the […]

June 9, 2023
Asylum
Press Release

Title 42 Replaced by Biden’s Asylum Ban: PHR

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) welcomes today’s end of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that weaponized the pandemic to expel people seeking asylum from the United States. While Title 42 was framed as a way to safeguard Americans from COVID-19, PHR demonstrated for years that there was never a credible public health rationale behind a […]

May 11, 2023
Asylum
Press Release

No Duration of Detention is Safe for Children, Biden Administration Must Not Reinstate Family Detention of Migrants: PHR

In response to reports that the Biden administration is considering reinstating the policy of detaining migrant families, the following statement is attributable to Ranit Mishori, MD, MHS, senior medical advisor for Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and professor of family medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine: “There is no ‘safe’ duration of detention for […]

March 8, 2023
Asylum
Press Release

PHR Condemns Biden Administration’s Inhumane Plans to Expand Expedited Removals of Asylum Seekers under Title 42

NEW YORK – In response to this afternoon’s announcement by United States President Joe Biden of new “border security” measures along the southern border, which would expand expedited removals under Title 42, the following statement is attributable to Michele Heisler, MD, MPA, medical director at Physicians for Human Rights and professor of internal medicine and […]

January 5, 2023
Asylum
Press Release

“Shameful and Dangerous”: PHR Medical Director on Biden Title 42 Reversal

In response to news that the Biden administration would appeal a federal court’s decision that invalidated the Title 42 border expulsion order, the following quote is attributed to Michele Heisler, MD, MPA, medical director at Physicians for Human Rights and professor of public health and internal medicine at the University of Michigan: “The Biden administration’s […]

December 8, 2022
Asylum
Press Release

PHR Welcomes Judicial Decision to End Title 42, Warns of New Measures That Would Restrict Access to Asylum

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) welcomes U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan’s decision to vacate Title 42, an order that was used to expel asylum seekers more than 2.4 million times with no due process into dangerous conditions in Mexico.   Title 42 – invoked in March 2020 by the Trump administration purportedly to defend against the […]

November 16, 2022
Asylum
Press Release

ACLU and PHR Renew Calls for ICE to End Force-Feeding Amid Release of Harrowing New Intercept Video

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union and Physicians for Human Rights renewed calls today for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to end the practice of force-feeding detained people, and to end its reliance on mass immigration detention, after the Intercept obtained and released footage of the federal agency force-feeding a man engaged in a […]

November 15, 2022
Asylum
Press Release

PHR Welcomes the End of “Draconian” Migrant Protection Protocols

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) welcomes yesterday’s U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s decision to lift the injunction that required the continued implementation of the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP), also known as Remain in Mexico, which forced people seeking asylum in the United States to wait in often-dangerous environments in Mexico. We […]

August 9, 2022
Asylum
Press Release

Title 42 Has “No Basis in Public Health”: PHR Files Amicus Brief to Rescind Inhumane Border Policy

Medical experts and human rights advocates from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) filed an amicus brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit today highlighting key public health evidence in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) efforts to rescind Title 42 border expulsions. Since the policy was […]

August 2, 2022
Asylum, COVID-19
Press Release

PHR Welcomes Supreme Court Ruling on “Remain in Mexico” Policy, Calls for End to Title 42 Border Expulsions

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) welcomes today’s United States Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Biden v. Texas, holding that the Biden Administration can end the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy. Enacted by the Trump administration in January 2019, MPP is a disastrous policy that has placed tens of […]

June 30, 2022
Asylum
Press Release

Title 42 Court Ruling Condemns Asylum Seekers to Persecution and Danger: PHR

In response to news that Judge Robert Summerhays of the U.S. District Court in Lafayette, Louisiana ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot move forward a plan to rescind Title 42 border expulsions, the following quote is attributable to Michele Heisler, MD, MPA, medical director at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) […]

May 20, 2022
Asylum
Press Release

Medical and Public Health Experts Call on Biden Administration to Not Delay Planned Repeal of ‘Devastating’ Title 42 Border Expulsions

Twelve leading medical and public health experts across the United States called on the Biden administration and Congress today to repeal the Title 42 border expulsions order as planned on May 23. In response to a Tuesday Axios report that the Biden administration is considering a delay of the repeal of the order in response […]

April 21, 2022
Asylum
Press Release

Parents Experience Severe Psychological Trauma Four Years After Family Separation by the U.S. Government: PHR Report

Three to four years after being separated from their children by the U.S. government, deported asylum-seeking parents continue to endure severe psychological trauma, according to a new investigation published today by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). The report’s findings underscore the U.S. government’s unfulfilled obligation to provide remedy, rehabilitation, and redress to survivors of family […]

April 19, 2022
Asylum
Press Release

Informe de PHR: A cuatro años de la separación familiar forzada por parte del gobierno de los EE. UU. padres y madres continúan padeciendo un trauma psicológico severo

Tres o cuatro años después de haber sido separados de sus hijos por el gobierno de los EE. UU., los padres y madres solicitantes de asilo que fueron deportados continúan padeciendo un trauma psicológico severo, según la más reciente investigación publicada hoy por Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). Los hallazgos de esta investigación subrayan la […]

April 19, 2022
Asylum

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