Trump administration 'turning against entire ecosystem of human rights'

An international rights group has warned that Donald Trump's return to the White House has intensified a "downward spiral" on democracy and human rights in the United States.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) executive director Philippe Bolopion said in an interview that Trump was "turning against the entire ecosystem of human rights," which is "now under unprecedented threat" from his administration.

The "speed at which the US democratic system has been deteriorated by the Trump administration in only one year" is "staggering," Bolopion noted.

This "very rapid decline of democracy in the US" has international consequences, he added.

The Trump administration has "gone after the independence of judges, journalists, academic institutions, law firms and large companies" and "has tried to undermine the trust in the sanctity of elections."

"It's really a multi-front attack on all the checks and balances that in the past have made US democracy strong and resilient," he emphasized.

The remarks come as an annual World Report published by HRW pointed to the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to cities in the US, which have carried out "hundreds of unnecessarily violent and abusive raids."

Pointing to the US crackdown on its own citizens and immigrants, the HRW report said that the US was moving toward authoritarianism under the Trump administration.

"The administration's racial and ethnic scapegoating, domestic deployment of National Guard forces in pretextual power grabs, repeated acts of retaliation against perceived political enemies and former officials now critical of him, as well as attempts to expand the coercive powers of the executive and neuter democratic checks and balances, underpin a decided shift toward authoritarianism in the US," the report said.

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The developments come as US federal immigration officers have shot more than a dozen people since September, as the Department of Homeland Security has ramped up deportation operations around the country.

In the latest fatal shooting on Jan. 24, a federal agent killed Alex Pretti, 37, just weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, also 37. Both were US citizens and Minneapolis residents.

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In many of the shootings, including Good's, officers have fired into cars.

The vehicle shootings raise serious concerns among policing experts about the rapidly expanding deployment of DHS personnel into American communities, where officers are regularly captured on video clashing with immigrants who are in the country illegally as well as citizens who protest the arrests.

In addition, the US imposed “terrorist-grade sanctions” on a United Nations human rights experts and multiple judges and prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The move followed arrest warrants issued by the ICC in November 2024 for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his minister for military affairs at the time, Yoav Gallant, on charges including war crimes and crimes against humanity, notably the use of starvation as a method of warfare against the people of Gaza.

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