The Advocates for Human Rights works to end arbitrary detention of non-citizens in the United States and to ensure that everyone in U.S. immigration custody is treated humanely and with dignity. Through leadership in the Detention Watch Network, collaboration in reporting to the United Nations on U.S. detention practices, and ensuring legal services for people detained in the Upper Midwest, The Advocates for Human Rights strives to educate and end practices of arbitrary detention in the United States.

Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights prohibits arbitrary detention. Other international law documents lay out standards for the protection of persons in detention, ensuring they receive adequate living conditions and are treated humanely among other things. Despite international human rights standards, prolonged, arbitrary detention by immigration officials is common in the United States.

Skyrocketing use of immigration detention. Mandatory detention laws, massive growth of the budgets of immigration enforcement agencies, and draconian administrative policies have combined to create this growth.The United States will detain over 440,000 people in jails, prisons, and detention centers throughout the country this year. Over 30,000 people are in immigration detention on any given day. Detention Watch Network's Detention Map provides information on where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains people throughout the U.S.

Lack of mandatory, enforceable detention standards. ICE Detention Standards purport to protect those in detention from ill-treatment and neglect, but the standards are not mandatory in most of the facilities which hold immigration detainees. Reports of deaths of detainees, inadequate medical care, and poor conditions of confinement are frequent. Conditions in jails, prisons and detention centers vary widely around the country. Many detainees lack access to fresh air or to in-person visits with family members, even while detained for months or even years pending the outcome of their cases.