US immigration enforcement faced mounting scrutiny Jan. 23 from international officials as well as congressional Democrats following a detainee death ruled a homicide by a county medical examiner in Texas. The disturbing development comes amid a dramatic spike in deaths in Homeland Security custody.

The Libyan Attorney General's Office on Jan. 16 announced the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 21 bodies. A prosecutor in Benghazi charged an individual identified by the initials "MFH" with human trafficking in connection with the discovery.

The Syrian interim government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reached an agreement Jan. 18 to immediately halt fighting and integrate SDF-held areas into state institutions. The deal follows days of renewed clashes, in which government forces routed SDF strongholds in the city of Aleppo and then pushed east, taking several towns that had been under the control of the Kurdish-led autonomous administration. Just hours before the agreement was reached, autonomous authorities in the Kurdish region, known as Rojava, had announced a "general mobilization" in support of the SDF, citing an "existential war" launched by Damascus against their territory.

President Donald Trump on Jan. 15 warned that he may invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops in Minnesota to quell protests over the massive deployment of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the Twin Cities.

A coalition of civil and human rights organizations is calling for the closure of a massive immigration detention facility at Fort Bliss, alleging guards have beaten detainees and threatened violence, criminal charges and imprisonment in attempts to coerce even non-Mexican migrants into crossing the border into Mexico.

Houthi de facto authorities in Yemen have detained dozens of political opponents since July, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Nov. 27. The rights group said that at least 70 people associated with the opposition party Yemeni Congregation for Reform, or Islah, were detained on Oct. 28 in Dhamar governorate. HRW noted that 21 of these individuals have been subject to an "unfair trial" on "dubious accusations of espionage," with 17 sentenced to death by firing squad, and two sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

Venezuelan nationals deported to El Salvador by the US government earlier this year were tortured and ill-treated, advocacy groups reported Nov. 12.

According to an 81-page report jointly released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Cristosal, a Salvadoran advocacy organization, members of a group of 252 Venezuelan deportees sent to El Salvador’s notorious Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) were subjected to torture, arbitrary detention, and in some instances sexual abuse, while held incommunicado in inhumane conditions. The organizations found a pattern of coordinated abuse rather than isolated incidents. One former detainee told the investigators: "I'm on alert all the time because every time I heard the sound of keys and handcuffs, it meant they were coming to beat us."

Advocacy groups in Illinois filed a class action lawsuit against US federal authorities on Oct. 31 over "inhumane" conditions at a Chicago-area Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, claiming violations of detainees' constitutional rights as well as federal regulations.

The plaintiffs' lawyers—from the MacArthur Justice Center, the ACLU of Illinois and Chicago law firm Eimer Stahl—charge that federal authorities have violated the Fifth Amendment Due Process clause by imposing unreasonable conditions of confinement. They also allege violations of an administrative regulation prohibiting coercion to induce waiver of rights. They further allege a violation of the Sixth Amendment in denial of detainees' right to counsel.