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.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

To mark Human Rights Day, PHR hosted a conversation about how health professionals can use their skills and platforms to document and call attention to human rights violations.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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) […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

Submitted by Adam Richards, MD, PhD, MPH, DTM&H, Associate Professor of Global Health and Medicine at The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health and School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) Member of the Board of Directors and the PHR Asylum Network. Thank you for the opportunity […]

Today the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced its plans to rescind the Title 42 order, which the U.S. government has used to expel asylum seekers and other migrants almost two million times since its enactment in March 2020. While welcoming the long-delayed announcement, medical experts and human rights advocates from Physicians […]

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reiterates its call on the White House and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to immediately rescind the Title 42 order, through which the U.S. government has expelled asylum seekers and other migrants more than one million times over the past two years.   On March 11, the CDC […]

Originally published by Yale Medicine Magazine 2022 Issue 168, “More than skin deep”. Article written by Sumaiya Sayeed. Of the many reasons to leave one’s home country for a new life elsewhere, war, natural disaster, and violent political or religious persecution are among the worst. For those displaced individuals who have sought a better life […]

NEW YORK — In response to the Biden administration and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s formal support of Congressional action to provide permanent legal status for victims of the Trump-era family separation policy, migrant health experts with first-hand experience evaluating psychological trauma sustained by separated families are calling on the Biden […]

Medical professionals are raising the alarm about the U.S. government’s failure to provide COVID-19 vaccine booster doses to migrants and asylum seekers in government detention. In a letter addressed to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tae D. Johnson, leading medical professionals and […]

The following statement is attributable to Kathryn Hampton, deputy director of the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) Asylum Program, in response to news that the Biden administration is exiting negotiations over compensation for families separated at the border: “It is beyond shameful that President Biden’s Department of Justice is standing with the Trump administration officials […]

Asylum seekers and other immigrants who obtained forensic medical evaluations were granted protection in the United States in 81.6 percent of cases facilitated by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) between 2008 and 2018, nearly twice the national asylum grant rate of 42.4 percent during the same period, a new study by PHR and City University of […]