Rights Working Group

With support from USHRF, the Rights Working Group has launched a public education and advocacy campaign to hold the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accountable for restoring due process rights of non-citizens in the U.S. The program demands that DHS stop circumventing due process standards and obligations in raids and detentions of immigrants and non-citizens; end inhumane and arbitrary detention; and establish fair procedures to alleviate the backlog in processing citizenship applications. RWG will implement its campaign in three stages:

• General education and membership outreach efforts will begin  with a series of “Nights of 1000 Conversations."

• During the same time period, RWG will work on a transition memo for the new administration and members of Congress, highlighting the personal stories of immigrants and non-citizens whose rights have been violated by DHS and other agencies.

• Following the general election, RWG intends to link its members’ grassroots organizing to policy advocacy by promoting specific policy reforms and legislation that restores due process and human rights protections to the immigration enforcement system. RWG will convene a national membership meeting in Washington, DC where members will lobby their representatives in Congress. RWG will also develop and advocate for a list of actions for the first 100 days of the new administration.