Welcome to the February 2025 issue of CVT World, CVT’s periodic compilation of the latest news, stories and public activities from our team.

CVT Responds to Forced Halt of International Programs

Starting the evening of January 24, CVT was forced by the U.S. government to stop work in the large majority of our international programs, immediately halting sessions with torture survivors and furloughing 75% of our staff. This halt to funding impacted clients across most of CVT’s overseas work, interrupting treatment programs and leaving survivors of torture without a critical lifeline to healing.

Staff from across CVT operations, research, finance, IT and human resources took immediate action, working to comply with the stop-work orders and manage details. CVT’s development and policy teams stepped into action with an emergency fundraising campaign and action outreach to supporters. In addition, the team held a townhall session to share the latest information and call for action.

The safety, health and wellbeing of the populations we serve is critical to core U.S. interests and objectives that both republican and democratic administrations have advanced for decades. These abrupt closures will put our clients’ lives at serious risk in many respects.”

CVT publicly announced the funding freeze and impact on our international programs, noting, “The safety, health and wellbeing of the populations we serve is critical to core U.S. interests and objectives that both republican and democratic administrations have advanced for decades. These abrupt closures will put our clients’ lives at serious risk in many respects.”

When Life-Saving Psychosocial Care Programs are Forced to Stop Work

Dr. Simon Adams, president and CEO, wrote this article about the situation and its impacts on clients and CVT. He writes of our clients, “Some were imprisoned and tortured, some have survived persecution and atrocities, some had loved ones taken from them and ‘disappeared.’ And some are children.”

Some were imprisoned and tortured, some have survived persecution and atrocities, some had loved ones taken from them and ‘disappeared.’ And some are children.”

Dr. Simon Adams, president & CEO

News Media Coverage of Funding Freezes Mentions CVT

In news media interactions in the days that followed, Simon Adams, Scott Roehm, director of global policy and advocacy, and others were quoted in numerous news stories.

New York Times: Medhanye Alem, who before the stop-work orders served as clinical program director for CVT Ethiopia, spoke to Declan Walsh, who wrote, “’We are in disbelief,’ said Medhanye Alem of the Center for Victims of Torture, which treats survivors of conflict-related trauma at nine centers in northern Ethiopia, all now closed.”

We are in disbelief.”

Medhanye Alem

KARE 11 News: Simon Adams mentions that opposition to torture is above politics, saying “. . . it’s about freedom and justice for people who have suffered the worst things that human beings can do to one another and so for us, this is a catastrophe. For the people that we serve, it’s even worse than that.”

The Atlantic: Scott Roehm told the reporter “that many of the center’s clients attempted suicide prior to getting help. He fears what will happen to people who have to stop their treatment—and those who never get help at all.” The article is available on Yahoo News.

Minnesota Public Radio:  Simon Adams said, “We’re having to turn away torture survivors who are desperate for help, for whom we are a lifeline back to healing and hope.”

Minnesota Star Tribune: Scott Roehm noted, “The whiplash alone associated with these kinds of sudden, erratic, and confusing developments is deeply harmful to torture victims and the other beneficiaries we serve.” He adds, “It makes the already thick fog of uncertainty and fear that they’ve been forced to endure that much worse.”

The whiplash alone associated with these kinds of sudden, erratic, and confusing developments is deeply harmful to torture victims and the other beneficiaries we serve.”

Scott Roehm, director of global policy & advocacy

Newsweek: “The attempt to just shut down our funding, whether it be the international work we do outside the United States, or to shut down the funding to our clinics across the United States, has just been catastrophic for us,” Simon Adams said.

Sahan Journal: Both Scott Roehm and Sara Nelson, program manager at the St. Paul Healing Center, were quoted. Scot said, “In some cases, this is quite literally, the care we are providing [is] life-saving, and quite literally taking it away [is] putting lives at risk.”

Trump Administration’s Plans for Guantánamo

In the wake of the Trump administration’s sending immigrants who were in custody in the United States to Guantánamo, Yumna Rizvi, senior policy analyst, wrote this fact sheet page to share information about the facility with our readers, reporters and lawmakers. She describes the difference between the Guantánamo detention facility, which CVT has worked for years to close, and the separate Guantánamo Migrant Operations Center (GMOC), which the Coast Guard has used to hold migrants. The fact sheet can be downloaded here.

Two articles about President Trump’s announcement to detain migrants at Guantánamo featured CVT – this one in Infobae mentions our work to close the facility and this one in NewTral links to our information pages on the website. This resulted in thousands of views of those pages.

CVT Denounces Passage of the Laken Riley Act

Alison Beckman, CVT senior clinician for external relations, issued this statement as the U.S. Congress passed the Laken Riley Act, which allows refugees and asylum seekers to be detained and held indefinitely without due process, for even petty offenses. Ally said, “This bill poses an enormous risk to vulnerable communities that make the United States more vibrant and prosperous, with torture survivors and others seeking asylum among them.”

News Commentary: Suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program

Leora Hudak, migration partnerships program manager, spoke to Voice of America today in this article on the announcement that the U.S. suspension of the refugee admissions program. She urged refugees, asylees and people with humanitarian parole to contact their resettlement agencies and make sure their papers are in order. She said, “Even if they were to reopen the refugee resettlement system in some way, they could reduce the number of refugees allowed per year, so significantly that even those people who were approved for travel and whose trip was canceled, and are now back in the pipeline, could have to wait a long time because of those restrictions.”

CVT Denounces Executive Orders That Will Harm Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Survivors of Torture

CVT issued this statement in response to numerous anti-immigration executive orders signed by newly-sworn President Donald Trump as he takes office. “Today’s executive orders demonize a host of vulnerable communities and will trap many people fleeing persecution, including some torture survivors, in extremely dangerous circumstances,” said Scott Roehm, adding, “This country should be welcoming more people searching for safety, not fewer.”

Op Ed Article: “At 23, Guantánamo Remains a Stain on U.S. History and Biden’s Legacy”

Yumna Rizvi published this op ed article in TRT World, writing about how despite pledging to close Guantánamo detention facility, the Biden administration’s “actions over the past four years were marked by delays, contradictions, and missed opportunities.” At this point, she writes, “It is far from clear that the 15 men who remain, including three who have been cleared for transfer, will ever leave the prison.”

CVT Calls for Healing and Justice at News of a Ceasefire in Gaza

In response to news of a ceasefire in Gaza, CVT issued this statement from Simon Adams, who comments, “Now is the time for the international community to invest in the provision of humanitarian services that address individual, inter-generational and collective trauma. There can be no lasting peace without addressing both the symptoms and the underlying causes of the conflict.”

President Biden’s Guantánamo Bay Legacy

Scott Roehm is quoted in this NPR story by Sacha Pfeiffer about actions on Guantánamo by President Biden, who said he would close the facility during his term. Scott comments that while the president deserves credit for significantly reducing the number of men remaining in Guantánamo, “At the end of the day, Guantánamo is going to be open in some fashion when the Biden administration leaves office, and that is a failure.” A longer radio version of the article is found here.

Podcast Episode: The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse

New Tactics in Human Rights has a new episode of their Human Rights Chat podcast. Host Melissa McNeilly, New Tactics web and digital content consultant, speaks to Susie Hughes, cofounder and executive director of the Int’l Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, about this human rights violation in which prisoners of conscience are subject to forced organ harvesting, as well as the extensive work of coalition partners fighting for justice. Listen to the podcast here.

Working in Coalition with Partners

Working with partners brings strength to CVT’s policy advocacy. We regularly participate in organized coalition actions that support survivors of torture. Below are some of these coalition and partner actions.

• CVT endorsed the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, reintroduced this week by Representative Ilhan Omar and Senator Mazie Hirono. This bill is intended to repeal the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which is the last of a set of statutes that targeted immigrants. Rep. Omar writes that this antiquated law enables discrimination, saying, “The Alien Enemies Act has been used to target immigrants based solely on their nationality, leading to shameful chapters in our history like the internment of Japanese, Italian, and German-Americans during World War II.” Also see Sen. Hirono’s press release here.
• Remain in Mexico (MPP) is a policy which requires certain asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their asylum cases are being processed in the United States. There was a Senate Homeland Security Committee in January to consider reinstating this policy. CVT joined more than 35 coalition partners in this statement urging Congress to reject a return to this policy. The authors write, “Based on our asylum law and humanitarian services expertise, it is clear to us that there is no lawful, safe, or humane way to implement RMX” (Remain in Mexico).