Muhammad Ali Institute Advancing Human Rights

Enid Trucios-Haynes, Director and Professor of Law, is advancing human rights during the COVID19 pandemic by joining hundreds of concerned law professors, researchers, and educators nationwide urging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release all immigration detainees in order to prevent the further spread of this deadly virus. The letter, sent on Monday, April 27, 2020, noted that continued civil confinement is unacceptable in this pandemic and people in detention are “highly vulnerable to contract contagious illnesses. They are subjected to overcrowded close quarters, enhancing contagion, and they are often not given adequate health care and treatment.” The letter to DHS noted a recent federal court decision in California that determined the constitutional rights of immigration detainees are violated when their detention places them in harm’s way. Read news coverage of the letter and court decision.

UofL’s Cooperative Consortium for Transdisciplinary Research, co-led by Enid Trucios-Haynes in her capacity as the Director of the Muhammad Ali Institute with Dr. Cate Fosl, Director of the Anne Braden Institute, sent letters to Governor Beshear and Mayor Fischer urging the release of prisoners in Kentucky jails and prisons to protect this vulnerable group from COVID19. These letters were signed by faculty, staff, and students of the University of Louisville.