Tag

#torture

The intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering by or with the acquiescence of state officials. Prohibited absolutely under international law with no exceptions for emergency, war, or national security.

10 incidents

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Secret Cameroon Deportation Agreement and Torture of Deportees

The US secretly deported 17 people from 9 African countries to Cameroon under a covert agreement, including people with US court protections against return to their home countries. Cameroon detained them without legal basis, and journalists attempting to document conditions were arrested. HRW says the transfers to a country with a record of torture in detention breach the prohibition on refoulement.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Secretive $7.5 Million Deal Sends 66 Deportees to Equatorial Guinea, Then On to the Countries They Fled

A secret agreement with one of the world's most repressive regimes has sent 66 deportees to Equatorial Guinea, where they were detained and, in the case of all 29 on the first two flights, returned to their countries of origin, including people US judges had found would face persecution or torture there. The $7.5 million deal is part of a broader $40 million third-country deportation program targeting migrants from countries that will not accept their return.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Torture and Enforced Disappearances at 'Alligator Alcatraz' and Krome Detention Centers

Florida immigration detention centers are sites of documented torture including a punitive cage device, prolonged solitary confinement, unsanitary conditions, and enforced disappearances facilitated by the absence of any tracking system. At least six people died in Florida ICE facilities since October 2024.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Secret Deportation of 252 Venezuelans to CECOT Mega-Prison

252 Venezuelans were secretly deported to CECOT, where HRW documented torture, sexual violence, prolonged incommunicado detention, and denial of basic necessities. At least 48.8% had no criminal history in the United States, and at least 62 had asylum cases pending. All 252 were sent to Venezuela in a July 18, 2025 prisoner exchange.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Secret $6 Million Contract to Outsource Detention to El Salvador's CECOT

A secret $6 million contract enabled the US to outsource detention to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, where HRW documented systematic torture. The unreleased agreement created an unprecedented mechanism to evade domestic legal protections by transferring detainees to a foreign torture facility.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Surge in Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention

At least 10,588 people were subjected to solitary confinement in immigration detention over 14 months spanning two administrations, with usage surging under the Trump administration. PHR reports that from 2018 to 2023 nearly three in four placements lasted 15 days or longer, the duration beyond which the UN Special Rapporteur on torture considers solitary confinement prohibited and capable of amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; whether a given placement amounts to torture depends on its purpose and severity, assessed case by case. DHS oversight offices were simultaneously decimated from 150 to 22 staff.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Guantanamo Bay Immigrant Detention: Solitary Confinement and Ill-Treatment

Immigrants transferred to Guantanamo Bay face conditions that Human Rights Watch says may amount to ill-treatment prohibited under international law: isolation for up to 23 hours a day, punitive restraint in a chair, and incommunicado detention. ACLU and CCR lawsuits challenge the offshore detention as unconstitutional and beyond the authority of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Zero Tolerance Family Separation: Systematic Removal of Children from Asylum-Seeking Parents

Attorney General Sessions announced a zero tolerance policy in April 2018 requiring criminal prosecution of all illegal border crossers. Because federal criminal custody excludes children, this automatically separated minors from their parents. Over 5,500 children were separated in six weeks. Courts ordered reunification; a June 2022 federal task-force report found about 1,400 children still not reunified.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

ICE Detention: Deaths, Abuse, and Inhumane Conditions in Immigration Detention Facilities

Under Trump, ICE detention grew from approximately 41,000 to over 55,000 people at peak. Press tallies put deaths in ICE custody at roughly 40 during the first term, including 21 in FY2020, the highest annual number since 2005. A DHS OIG inspection found spoiled and moldy food, nooses in cells, improper segregation and inadequate medical care. A Senate investigation found women at one Georgia facility were subjected to excessive, invasive and often unnecessary gynecological procedures.

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

2015–2016 Campaign: Trump Advocates Waterboarding 'and Much Worse' and Killing Terrorists' Families

During the 2016 primary campaign Trump promised to restore waterboarding and harsher methods, and said the US should kill terrorists' families. Both would violate the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture. As a candidate's statements, they are recorded here as evidence of stated intent, not as conduct.