United States

We apply international human rights standards to every country, including this one. In 2026 UN officials, courts and rights organisations have documented deaths in immigration detention, force used by federal agents, a narrowing of voting-rights protections and secrecy around the death penalty.

What we are tracking

Immigration detention

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reported on 25 June 2026 that 52 people died in ICE custody between 20 January 2025 and 4 June 2026. They said the detained population rose about 77%, from roughly 40,000 to more than 71,000 by January 2026, and that the annual mortality rate rose by roughly 138–140%. They found that ICE had not provided adequate information in any of the 39 cases they reviewed.

In June 2026 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk cited 33 deaths in 2025 against 11 in 2024 and 18 in the first five months of 2026, noted plans to expand capacity to 90,000, and called for independent investigations.

Sources: HRW/PHR, Dying in Detention, 25 Jun 2026 · OHCHR, Jun 2026

Federal enforcement surge in Minnesota

HRW reported on 18 June 2026 that thousands of federal agents were deployed to Minnesota between December 2025 and March 2026. HRW documented what it describes as unlawful killings of two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in January 2026; about 4,000 people detained, more than 75% with no US criminal conviction; and, per the National Lawyers Guild of Minnesota, more than 500 US-citizen protesters arrested. Of 532 resolved habeas cases, about 90% ended in release or a bond hearing.

On 24 September 2026 Amnesty International, in a report based on about 150 interviews, called for ICE to be abolished, the first time it has called for a government agency to be abolished, and said some killings “may amount to extrajudicial executions”, according to MPR News. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded by citing the criminal records of people detained in Chicago.

Sources: HRW, 18 Jun 2026 · MPR News, 24 Sep 2026

Voting rights

On 29 April 2026 the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in Louisiana v. Callais that Louisiana’s second majority-Black congressional district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, and narrowed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

ABC News and the Associated Press reported that nine states (Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Utah) are using new congressional maps in November 2026, and that Louisiana eliminated one of its two majority-Black districts. HRW said on 25 September 2026 that the US did not invite OSCE election observers, the first time since 2002, and that no public explanation was given. (These two items come from news reports we are still re-checking.)

Sources: Supreme Court opinion, 29 Apr 2026 · CRS summary · ABC/AP · HRW, 25 Sep 2026

Death penalty

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPI), in its mid-year update of 8 July 2026, counted 16 executions through 30 June (Florida: 9), 12 new death sentences, and a death-row population of 1,993, the lowest since the 1980s. DPI also reported new execution-secrecy laws in Kentucky and Idaho, a June ruling that Alabama’s nitrogen protocol is unconstitutional, and a failed execution attempt in Tennessee in May.

Sources: DPI mid-year update, 8 Jul 2026

Free speech and speech-based deportation

Ruling of 28 August 2026, reported by Reuters and FIRE; no appeal reported as of Sept 30, 2026. A federal judge in the Northern District of California ruled on 28 August 2026 in Stanford Daily v. Rubio that two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act are unconstitutional as applied to protected speech, in a declaratory judgment. The court denied the requested injunctions. No appeal reported as of Sept 30, 2026.

Sources: FIRE · Reuters, 29 Aug 2026 · Court opinion, 28 Aug 2026 (govinfo)

Government response

Where sources report an official response we include it, as with DHS above. We have not found a public DHS response to the HRW/PHR findings in the sources we reviewed.

What you can do

• Read the HRW/PHR report and the OHCHR statement linked above.
• Check your voter registration and election information at vote.gov.
• Ask your members of Congress about independent oversight of immigration detention. Find your representatives.
• Know your rights: the ACLU and Human Rights First publish resources. We link to them as outside resources; we are not affiliated with either, and this is not legal advice.

More from the United States: USA news and briefings.