Families separated.  Rife sexual abuse in detention centers. Informants handed over to certain death. Refugees physically tortured and sexually abused. Pregnant women detained. Illegal solitary confinement tactics used. Seven year old children incarcerated for prolonged periods, without access to family contact. Teenagers brutally murdered at the border. Over the last few years, the human rights abuses perpetuated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) have increasingly come into light, with watchdog agencies labelling such abuses as “systemic” within the federal agency. But what steps can be taken to correct these human rights abuses, and what position should immigration activists take towards the agency? A growing faction on the left has called to “Abolish ICE,” demanding the federal agency, created only in 2003, be defunded in light of its continuing and systemic abuses. The Stanford Human Rights Center, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Stanford Law Democratic Socialists bring together a panel of four activists and advocates specializing in immigration and ICE to discuss the federal agency, domestic and international human rights law, and solutions moving forward. We will be hosting Bianca Santos, the Director of the International Human Rights Program at the immigration nonprofit Pangea, Clara Long, immigration expert for Human Rights Watch, Sean McElwee, a journalist who has covered ICE and the case to abolish amongst the left, and a representative from the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance. Lunch will be served.

This event is a part of the “Human Rights in the Age of Trump” Speaker Series, organized by the Stanford Human Rights Center with the aid of several supporting organisations on campus.