@uwchr.bsky.social
We partner with organizations on the front lines of local & global human rights struggles to conduct research in the service of real-world social change.
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Don't miss this opportunity to work with the great folks at the @uwbridgescenter.bsky.social
Learn more about UWCHR's series of reports monitoring conditions at the Tacoma-based detention center:
jsis.washington.edu/humanrights/...
The current contract between ICE and GEO Group for the operation of the Northwest ICE Processing Center is set to end tomorrow, September 27th.
But what's next is unknown.
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
Members of Congress have also been unable to obtain records required under the contract, suggesting that ICE is not uniformly enforcing their own contract standards but yet point to those standards as a sort of compliance theater to give a false sense of oversight and safety.
Read the full report:
Report findings included ICE's response to multiple FOIA requests that various required records mandated under the facility's contract do not exist.
16.09.2025 18:55 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Shown in the article, when faced with criticism, ICE regularly points to "policies and procedures" ensuring standards are upheld.
But what policies and procedures are in ICE facility contracts, how are they enforced? In a recent UWCHR report about the NWDC in Tacoma, WA, we explore just that.
Today's @nytimes.com article reports on the horrible conditions inside immigration detention centers that exacerbate mental health crises, citing UWCHR research.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/h...
NEW: The @uwchr.bsky.social found that ICE and CBP are disappearing Washington residents. What does this mean? Read online at Gossip Guy, or find it in print @realchangenews.bsky.social later this week:
gossipguy.net/ice-and-cbp-...
Gross Human Rights Violations in Washington State: Refoulement and Enforced Disappearance report cover, outline of Washington state cut into three, with handcuffs, cell bars, and a Global X plane overlaid over the state.
Learn more about gross human rights violations occurring in WA state and the networks of companies, government entities, and individuals that make them possible:
jsis.washington.edu/humanrights/...
Signature Aviation logo on a staircase to a plane is covered by cardboard and tape, two (presumably) ICE officers or airport officials walk down the steps, one wearing a mask and hat obscuring their identity.
However, Signature continues to try to hide from public accountability, as cited in the article:
"Last month, a set of Signature boarding stairs in Seattle...got a new accessory: two sheets of cardboard, taped over the company’s logos."
As @laresistencianw.bsky.social shares, "The presence of Signature is essential for ICE to be within the airport, because without having a fixed-base operator to service the planes, they can’t land there, and no one else is doing this type of work."
www.propublica.org/article/seat...
ICE conducts deportations and transfers of detained people via air travel through two main pathways. The majority of ICE’s air travel involves a system of private chartered companies, known as ICE Air, which, in Washington, primarily operates out of King County International Airport (Boeing Field), with FBO services provided by Signature Aviation. However, ICE documents obtained by UWCHR under FOIA also show significant usage of commercial airlines for deportation operations, including at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, with carriers such as Alaska, Delta, Qatar Airways, United, and others. During Jan and Feb 2025, 322 people detained at the NWDC were transferred out: 210 left via ICE Air/Boeing Field, 104 left on commercial flights/Sea-Tac. 8 were driven to Canadian border.
Signature Aviation is a fixed-base operator—they supply ground crews, aviation fuel, boarding stairs, and airplane hangar space.
The graphic below shows how Signature fits in locally to WA state's deportation network, servicing flights out of King County Airport/Boeing Field.
The article cites UWCHR's recent report, "Gross Human Rights Violations in Washington State: Enforced Disappearance and Refoulement," where we named Bill Gates and the Washington State Investment Board's investments in Signature Aviation.
bsky.app/profile/uwch...
“In WA, our most famous philanthropist grows his investments in part by supporting a company complicit in gross human rights abuses, potentially ascending to the level of crimes against humanity."
@huffpost.com explores links between Bill Gates & mass deportation:
www.huffpost.com/entry/bill-g...
ICE conducts deportations and transfers of detained people via air travel through two main pathways. The majority of ICE’s air travel involves a system of private chartered companies, known as ICE Air, which, in Washington, primarily operates out of King County International Airport (Boeing Field), with FBO services provided by Signature Aviation. However, ICE documents obtained by UWCHR under FOIA also show significant usage of commercial airlines for deportation operations, including at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, with carriers such as Alaska, Delta, Qatar Airways, United, and others. During Jan and Feb 2025, 322 people detained at the NWDC were transferred out: 210 left via ICE Air/Boeing Field, 104 left on commercial flights/Sea-Tac. 8 were driven to Canadian border.
Signature Aviation is a fixed-base operator—they supply ground crews, aviation fuel, boarding stairs, and airplane hangar space.
The graphic below shows how Signature fits in locally to WA state's deportation network, servicing flights out of King County Airport/Boeing Field.
The article cites UWCHR's recent report, "Gross Human Rights Violations in Washington State: Enforced Disappearance and Refoulement," where we named Bill Gates and the Washington State Investment Board's investments in Signature Aviation.
bsky.app/profile/uwch...
Reminder: UW students, staff, and faculty can access the Financial Times through UW libraries:
guides.lib.uw.edu/research/bus...
Latest visual investigation by @financialtimes.com cites UWCHR analysis of ICE data sets obtained by the Deportation Data Project at the UC Berkeley School of Law.
28.08.2025 18:03 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
New reporting exposes the latest collaboration between WA Dept. of Licensing and ICE—a collaboration that is prohibited by the Keep Washington Working Act.
"Clearly relying on agencies to 'audit themselves' is not enough." - UWCHR Director Angelina Godoy
www.king5.com/article/news...
Read UWCHR's latest report, "Gross Human Rights Violations in WA State: Enforced Disappearance and Refoulement," and learn more about how local public and private institutions are involved in abuses against immigrants and migrants in WA state.
bsky.app/profile/uwch...
@laresistencianw.bsky.social monitors Boeing Field ICE flights, seeing…
➡️Flight rates increasing
➡️Use of shackles incl WRAP full-body restraint
➡️Inhumane transfer of ppl w/ medical conditions
➡️Families unsure of loved ones' whereabouts
➡️ICE's increased secrecy
➡️Lack of transparency from King County
Enforced disappearance and refoulement of Washingtonians is happening, right here, in our backyard, as @laresistencianw.bsky.social organizer Josefina Mora-Cheung says.
25.08.2025 16:46 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0VIDEO: @uwchr.bsky.social and @laresistencianw.bsky.social on the 16 enforced disappearances by ICE & CBP in Washington State since Trump took office. These include deportations to CECOT in El Salvador, South Sudan, transfers to Guantánamo Bay and families being held for weeks without legal counsel.
22.08.2025 16:34 — 👍 12 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 0
“All institutions—federal, state and local; public and private—and all individuals are called to take active measures to avoid complicity in the networks that produce these violations. Our central purpose in publishing this report is to make all Washingtonians witness to what is happening on our watch, in the hopes that we might come together in new ways to stop these abuses.”
Learn more and read the full report here: tinyurl.com/WAdisappeara...
22.08.2025 17:47 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
March 8, 2025 ICE deportations from Washington state. By cross referencing documents obtained under FOIA and public records requests, UWCHR researchers documented a snapshot of ICE deportations on a single day in Washington state. On this particular day—March 8, 2025—11 people were booked out for removal from the NWDC, including six Venezuelan men sent to CECOT prison in El Salvador via Texas, who were flown out of King County International Airport on a Global X flight. Others were removed via Sea-Tac airport on commercial airline flights. An additional four people were recorded as removed that day, including a UK citizen at the Blaine, WA Port of Entry; and three Brazilians via Miami International Airport under the authority of the Seattle Area of Responsibility removals docket.
By cross referencing documents, researchers created a snapshot of deportations on a single day in WA state.
On 3/8/25, 11 people were booked out for removal from NWDC, incl. 6 Venezuelan men sent to CECOT prison in El Salvador via Texas, flown out of King County Intl Airport on a Global X flight.
ICE conducts deportations and transfers of detained people via air travel through two main pathways. The majority of ICE’s air travel involves a system of private chartered companies, known as ICE Air, which, in Washington, primarily operates out of King County International Airport (Boeing Field), with FBO services provided by Signature Aviation. However, ICE documents obtained by UWCHR under FOIA also show significant usage of commercial airlines for deportation operations, including at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, with carriers such as Alaska, Delta, Qatar Airways, United, and others.
In the report we look at the two main ways ICE conducts removals & transfers:
➡️ Through a system of private chartered companies, known as ICE Air.
➡️ Through the usage of commercial airlines, including at Sea-Tac Intl Airport, with carriers such as Alaska, Delta, Qatar Airways, United, and others.
Involvement of local public and private institutions: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and King County International Airport (Boeing Field), both of which provide the infrastructure through which deportations happen daily; Washington State’s Department of Corrections, which collaborates with ICE in the detention of migrants completing a prison sentence; Signature Aviation, a private company providing fuel and support to private charter flights operating for ICE at King County International Airport; and the Washington State Investment Board, which invests the retirement funds of public employees in GEO Group and the firms that own Signature Aviation.
While primary responsibility for these abuses rests on the federal government, the report also documents the involvement of local public and private institutions.
These include:
➡️ Sea-Tac Airport
➡️ King County Intl Airport
➡️ WA Dept of Corrections
➡️ Signature Aviation
➡️ WA State Investment Board
Cases of refoulement and enforced disappearances with ties to WA state: 7 Washingtonians expelled to El Salvador’s notorious megaprison CECOT, in violation of a federal court order, where they were likely subjected to torture and other forms of abuse 6 Washingtonians sent to U.S. military detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, without access to counsel or information to their families 1 Washingtonian who was expelled to South Sudan, a country where he has no personal ties, following attempts to remove him in violation of a federal court order 2 families, including U.S. citizen children, who were held incommunicado in Customs and Border Protection facilities for weeks in Washington state
Using multiple data sources, researchers identified and documented cases of such abuses during recent months, several of which have not previously been reported:
22.08.2025 17:47 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
This report focuses on two specific crimes considered gross violations of human rights under international law: enforced disappearances (Enforced disappearance is the practice of depriving a person of liberty, concealing the person’s whereabouts, thus placing the victim outside the protection of the law. This can include holding people incommunicado without access to family or legal aid) and refoulement (Refoulement is the practice of sending a person in government custody to a place where they are likely to face grave danger, including returning asylum seekers to dangerous situations or sending someone to a third country where they may face danger.)
This new report focuses two specific human rights abuses:
➡️ refoulement: the practice of sending a person in gov custody to a place where they will be in danger
➡️ enforced disappearance: the practice of depriving a person in gov custody of liberty and denying information about their whereabouts
Gross human rights violations in WA state: Enforced disappearance and refoulement. tiny url.com/WAdisappearances
📢NEW REPORT!📢
What are the connections between WA state and gross human rights violations against migrants by ICE and CBP?
➡️ tinyurl.com/WAdisappeara...
