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July 11, 2025

Trump guts State Dept human rights reports while deporting

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Foreign Policy
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Life-saving asylum documentation disappears as migrants face prison violence

State Department human rights reports slashed from 70-80 pages to 15-20 pages under Trump administration

Entire categories removed including LGBTQ+ discrimination, corruption, prison conditions, and restrictions on peaceful assembly

Reports now falsely claim no credible human rights abuses in countries like El Salvador with notorious prisons

Over 1,300 State Department employees fired, including experts from Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

Reports required by Congress since 1974 are used in asylum cases and foreign aid decisions

US deports migrants to El Salvador despite documented prison abuses and human rights violations

Gutted reports help Trump's authoritarian allies avoid international scrutiny and accountability

🛂Immigration🌍Foreign Policy🔐Ethics

People, bills, and sources

Donald Trump

Donald Trump

President

Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio

Secretary of State

Yaqiu Wang

Chinese human rights researcher

Senator Chris Van Hollen

Democratic Senator

Amanda Klasing

Amnesty International official

Nayib Bukele

Nayib Bukele

President of El Salvador

What you can do

1

Contact House Foreign Affairs Committee at (202) 225-5021 demanding full restoration of human rights reporting requirements

2

Support Human Rights Watch at https://www.hrw.org and Amnesty International at https://www.amnesty.org creating independent human rights documentation

3

Call your senators at (202) 224-3121 to demand State Department funding be tied to comprehensive human rights reporting

4

Contact immigration lawyers through American Immigration Lawyers Association at https://www.aila.org to support asylum cases affected by gutted reports

5

Donate to the Committee to Protect Journalists at https://cpj.org documenting press freedom violations the State Department now ignores