Civil rights attorneys and activists are petitioning the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the U.S. federal government over immigration raids.
On Monday, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and activist Dolores Huerta stood alongside U.S. citizens who were detained during ICE raids. Civil rights attorneys, Luis and Michael Carrillo, were also present.
“The United Nations petition process exists for when patterns of serious, reliable, attested violations occur,” Waters said. “It allows independent experts to press governments for answers, to urge immediate safeguards, and to keep situations under review. It does not replace US oversight. It reinforces it.”
Luis Carrillo said they have nowhere else to go over the ICE raids, which he says has resulted in even US citizens being wrongfully beaten and arrested.
“The Supreme Court of the United States sided with this outlaw presidency, and we need the United Nations to investigate all the human rights abuses currently in this country,” he said.
Carrie Lopez, a US citizen, said she went into premature labor after ICE agents wrongfully detained her.
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“Even handcuffing me from the back, which later on turned to shackles under my belly,” she said. “They had told me that they were going to send me back to Mexico even though I had told them that I was a US citizen and that I speak English.”
The group said the goal is to get more than 100,000 signatures to present to the UN Human Rights Council.
It's uncertain whether the U.S. government will allow UN investigators into the country if the petition is accepted.
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