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 and in reporting to the United Nations on U.S. detention practices, and in ensuring legal services for people detained in the Upper Midwest, The Advocates for Human Rights strives to educate about and end arbitrary detention practices 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 approximately 400,000 people in jails, prisons, and detention centers throughout the country each 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. In early 2012, ICE released its Performance-Based National Detention Standards. While ICE notes that the new standards "reflect ICE's ongoing effort to tailor the conditions of immigration detention to its unique purpose" the PBNDS continue the penal model of detention and fail to provide clear accountability mechanisms to ensure that each of the hundreds of ICE-contracted facilities meet these standards. 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.