Today, Free Speech For People submitted a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in support of a formal complaint submitted by the Dolores Huerta Foundation on behalf of four U.S. citizens who were subject to unlawful and inhumane abuse by federal immigration officers, acting under orders of and in coordination with senior officials in the Trump administration. FSFP’s letter examines international law and identifies the clear manner in which the Huerta complaint satisfies UNHRC’s complaint admissibility criteria.

Since that complaint was filed, Donald Trump and his administration have continued to carry out aggressive, unlawful, and politically motivated military-style operations against civilians in California, Oregon, Minnesota, and throughout the country. In January, in two separate incidents, federal agents murdered two civilians: Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. They have continued to commit violent assaults against perceived immigrants and protesters as part of prolonged, unlawful, and violent occupations of Democratic-led cities and states. And in both Minnesota and Maine, Trump also has acted with specific animus toward the Somali refugee communities.

As FSFP articulates in its letter in support of the Huerta complaint, the facts alleged in that complaint demonstrate “consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of all human rights and all fundamental freedoms occurring” in the United States and warrant investigation by the UNHRC. The complaint details first-hand accounts of unlawful, abusive, and racially or ethnically motivated assaults, arrests, and detention of citizens and other residents of the United States by federal officers. Trump has also fired oversight officials and blocked other mechanisms of oversight. And instead of demanding accountability or putting an end to the unlawful occupation of American cities and states, in 2025, Congress appropriated $29.85 billion to ICE, $45 billion to the construction of new immigration detention centers where adults and children are being held in inhumane and unlawful conditions of confinement, and a further $10 billion slush fund to immigration agencies. And the U.S. Supreme Court has shown vast and unconstitutional deference to the Trump administration, even when confronted with manifest violations of federal law.

FSFP strongly urges the UNHRC to take up the Huerta complaint and to vindicate the rights of the complainants through a robust investigation into the human rights violations being committed by the Trump administration, in violation of both domestic and international law.

Read FSFP’s full statement to the UNHRC here.
Read our letter to UNHRC Chair-Rapporteur Frans Viljoen here.

Sign the Petition: Tell the UNHRC to investigate the Trump administration’s human rights violations.