Delivered to Danger

Delivered to Danger is a multi-year investigative partnership with El Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración (IMUMI) and Human Rights First (HRF) that empowers students to contribute to influential reports which advocate for elected officials to take action. 

Our Lab team supported IMUMI and HRF as they urged the U.S. government to end policies that leave refugees and migrants stranded in Mexico while they seek entry into the United States. Our team also investigated incidents of harm against Venezuelan asylum seekers and migrants expelled to or stranded in Mexico after the U.S. government expanded Title 42. Students verified and documented crimes against migrants in Mexico to enable IMUMI, HRF, and other human rights defenders to combat impunity for abuses and to advocate more effectively for humane border policies. Our student researchers populated an interactive map detailing 60 of these incidents including kidnappings, assaults, and other violent crimes, extortion and abuse by police and other government officers, family separations, forced busing, and abandonment without resources.

On November 15, 2022, a Washington D.C. district court voided Title 42, the 2020 policy preventing people from seeking asylum at U.S. ports of entry for the purpose of contagious disease containment. The judge cited a Human Rights First report that included incidents of violence against migrants and asylum seekers tracked by students from the Investigations Labs at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and UCLA. Students are continuing to work with IMUMI and HRF to track incidents of violence against people attempting to cross the border.