The University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights is warning that federal immigration action has crossed a new boundary and is now breaking international humanitarian law.

The report zeroes in on 16 cases where people have been arrested by government agents and held for extended periods of time without access to a lawyer, or to the outside world. The legal term for such detentions is “enforced disappearance.”

”What I'm talking about is cases where days or even weeks go by that families still don't know where their loved one is,” said Center for Human Rights Director Angelina Godoy.