MARCH 26 - Members of the Midwest Coalition of Human Rights have sent a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, urging her to reform existing ICE policies on immigration enforcement and to push for comprehensive immigration reform.

At the official invitation of the United States government, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, Dr. Doudou Diene of Senegal, visited the U.S. from May 19 to June 6, 2008, to meet with government officials, non-governmental organizations, and victims of racial discrimination.

Join MCHR in calling for the restoration of habeas corpus, a stop to renditions for torture, the abolition of secret prisons, fair trials, and the closing of Guantánamo Bay!

Download "Ten Steps to Restore the U.S.' Moral Authority:
A Common Sense Agenda for the 110th Congress"

Election Day is November 4, 2008! Vote Smart! 

This year, Americans will cast votes for their new President and Vice President, along with 35 U.S. Senate seats, all U.S. House of Representative seats, and gubernatorial positions in 11 states. In an effort to inform voters on important issues, we thought it would be useful to give you a Voter Guide that you can use and share with others before going to the polls in November. Our Voter Guide is non-partisan and is intended to be an educational tool on the Midwest Coalition’s three project areas enabling voters to make informed choices when deciding which candidate(s) to support.

The U.S. is among the 173 State parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. The 18 member Committee, the first body created by the United Nations to review actions by States to fulfill obligations under a specific human rights agreement, examines reports submitted periodically by States parties on efforts to comply with the Convention. Government representatives generally present the report, discuss its contents with Committee members, and answer questions.

Justice Served: The Arrest of Jon Burge

On October 21, 2008, Cmdr. Jon Burge was arrested at his home near Tampa, FL on charges of lying in a civil case about whether he and other officers under his command tortured and physically abused suspects in police custody dating back to the 1980s. Burge was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury in a three-count indictment unsealed today following his arrest. 

Line speed in U.S. meat packing plants moves at a rate of about 400 head of cattle an hour - one every ten seconds - resulting in cuts, lacerations, and in some cases amputations or death.

Check out our Slow Done the Line! printable postcard here.

Over 32,000 immigrants are detained on any given day in the U.S.
They are held in various detention facilities, county jails, and private for-profit prisons accross the country.

To see if there are immigrants detained near you, take a look at this detention map.

This map also includes information on specific detention centers, community organizations, Immigration & Customs Enforcement offices, and Immigration Courts.

State and local law enforcement agencies have shown increased interest over the past year in a program to train officers to enforce federal immigration law, and Congress will soon decide whether to fund further growth of the program.

Greater interest in the program worries some of its critics, who say involving local police in immigration enforcement leads to less cooperation from immigrants and heightens the risk of racial profiling.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is responsible for ensuring that immigrants who are detained are provided safe and human conditions of confinement while their cases are in immigration proceedings or are awaiting deportation to their home countries. Due to an increase in Detention and Removal proceedings since the 1990s, it quickly became clear that oversight was needed to ensure that immigrant detention was meeting the needs of detainees and facility personnel along with maintaining a safe and humane environment. As a result, 36 national Detention Standards were introduced in 2000.