Witness
A Social Enterprise for Human Rights Documentation
"The work begins where the silence breaks."
Survivor testimony turned into policy tools. Field reports that reach legislators before committee votes. Multilingual toolkits for the organizer in a small city at midnight.
Living Archive
Every piece of paper is still warm
from someone's hand.
12 resources available. Each one earned in the field.
Conditions at the Border: Intake Observations from 14 Detention Facilities
Field Report — Spring 2025
They asked me to sign a paper I could not read. I signed it because I was afraid of what would happen if I did not.
48 pages
Asylum Preparation Toolkit
For Pro Bono Attorneys
Step-by-step client interview guide, country condition research templates, and credibility assessment frameworks. Available in six languages.
22 pages
On Belonging: Testimony Excerpts from the Central Valley Workshops
Testimony Collection — 2024
Home is not a place anymore. Home is the people who remember you before everything happened.
Language Access in Immigration Proceedings: A Gap Analysis for the 119th Congress
Policy Brief — Submitted Feb 2026
of asylum seekers report receiving no translated materials at intake
This brief documents systematic failures in language access across federal immigration courts and detention facilities, with specific legislative remedies for the Judiciary Committee.
12 pages
Trauma-Informed Interview Techniques
Workshop Recording — 90 min
Led by Dr. Amara Osei-Bonsu. Covers sequencing, pacing, grounding techniques, and managing secondary trauma in legal interview settings.
Medical Neglect Documentation: 2025 Annual Review
Field Report — December 2025
documented medical access denials across reporting period
Systematic documentation of medical care denials in immigration detention, with case-level data and facility-specific findings.
36 pages
Organizer's Guide to Rapid Response: When Someone in Your Community Is Detained
Community Toolkit
The first 48 hours matter most. This guide exists because most people have no idea what to do in those hours.
18 pages
"I Kept the Paper"
Single Testimony — Translated from Somali
I kept every paper they gave me, even the ones I could not read. I thought someday someone would help me understand what they said.
Unaccompanied Minors in Expedited Removal: Recommendations for HHS Oversight
Policy Brief — January 2026
unaccompanied minors processed through expedited removal in 2025
Specific oversight recommendations for the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, based on 18 months of field observation and legal case review.
16 pages
Building Dissertation Frameworks on Displacement: A Seminar for Graduate Researchers
Workshop Recording + Slides — 2 hrs
graduate researchers have used this framework in published work
Covers ethical frameworks for working with survivor testimony, IRB considerations specific to detained populations, and methods for centering lived experience in academic work.
Access Denied: Legal Visitation Rights in Six Texas Facilities
Field Report — August 2025
Direct observation data from six facilities documenting systematic barriers to attorney-client communication.
24 pages
Know Your Rights: A Printable Guide in Six Languages
Rights Toolkit — Updated 2026
Single-page printable rights card designed for distribution in community settings. Tested for reading level and visual clarity with community partners.
4 pages
Who This Serves
Every resource is built for a specific person in a specific room.
Not for a generic audience. For the attorney with 72 hours before a hearing. For the organizer with a photocopier and a neighbor who just got a notice.
Pro Bono Attorneys
Preparing asylum cases under time pressure, often without country condition experts. Our field reports are structured for legal use — sourced, dated, and cross-referenced with case law.
- Asylum Preparation Toolkit
- Country Condition Field Reports
- Trauma-Informed Interview Workshop
Graduate Researchers
Building dissertations on displacement, forced migration, and detention policy. Our testimony collections are ethically sourced, IRB-consulted, and come with methodology notes.
- Testimony Collections
- Research Methodology Seminar
- Policy Brief Archive
Grassroots Organizers
Working in small cities, often alone, needing printable materials that work on a photocopier and make sense to a neighbor who just received a notice. Everything here can be printed.
- Rapid Response Toolkit
- Know Your Rights — 6 Languages
- Community Workshop Recordings
The Weight of the Work
"Every number in this archive is a room we sat in. A form we helped fill out. A voice that agreed to be heard."
These are not statistics from a database. They are counts from field observers who showed up, took notes, and came back with documentation that lands on legislators' desks before committee votes.
Read the field reports behind these numbersMedical access denials documented in 2025
Across 14 facilities in 3 states
of asylum seekers report receiving no translated materials at intake
From 2025 field survey
unaccompanied minors processed through expedited removal in 2025
Source: HHS data + field verification
graduate researchers have cited Witness field reports in published work
As of January 2026