Grade 3 of 5

Serious Rights Violation

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Documented violations of internationally recognized human rights that cause substantial, measurable harm to identifiable populations. Includes denial of access to healthcare, education, or shelter; discriminatory enforcement targeting protected classes; punitive actions against asylum seekers or refugees in contravention of treaty obligations; and use of excessive force by state agents.

82 incidents

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Supreme Court Revives DHS 'SAVE' Voter-Citizenship Database Ruled Unlawful, Weeks Before the Midterms (September 2026)

DHS turned SAVE, a benefits-eligibility tool, into a mass voter-citizenship checker by pulling in Social Security numbers and other federal records. A federal judge found that unlawful and found that eligible citizens had their registrations cancelled after being wrongly flagged. Weeks before the midterms, and inside the 90-day pre-election period, the Supreme Court let DHS resume using the system while the appeal continues, over a dissent warning that the harm of disenfranchising 'even a few lawful voters' outweighs any harm to the government.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Sirik Wedding Strike: US Munition Likely Hit Wedding Celebration in Southern Iran, Killing a 4-Year-Old and At Least Three Others (September 2026)

A strike on the night of September 1 hit a wedding near the Strait of Hormuz, killing at least four people including a 4-year-old and wounding dozens. Reuters-consulted experts judged the weapon likely American; the US has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility and says it is investigating.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Children Held for Months at Dilley in Breach of Flores Limits; Judge Appoints Independent Monitor Over ICE and CBP

ICE held children at its Dilley family detention center for months, far beyond the Flores settlement's 20-day standard, with an estimated 1,560 minors held past the limit in six months. A federal judge appointed an independent monitor and special master over ICE and CBP child custody. DHS responded that 'being in detention is a choice.'

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

US Strikes Hit Water Desalination Plant and Highway Bridges in Iran's Hormozgan Province, Cutting Drinking Water to 10,000 People (July 2026)

In mid-July 2026, US strikes in Hormozgan province hit bridges, tunnels, power infrastructure and a seawater desalination facility, leaving about 10,000 villagers without drinking water according to the regional water utility. Drinking-water installations are specially protected under the laws of war; the US has offered no target-specific justification.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Camp East Montana: Beatings, Medical Neglect and Deaths at the ICE Tent Camp on Fort Bliss

Human Rights Watch and the ACLU documented beatings, medical neglect and coercive deportations at Camp East Montana, the ICE tent camp on Fort Bliss and the largest US immigration detention facility. Three men died there within weeks, one in a death ruled a homicide. ICE's own inspection found unreported uses of force. DHS denies all of it.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

ICE Agent Kills Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine; Trump Overrides Pause on ICE Traffic Stops

An immigration agent shot dead a young Colombian father who was not the target of an ICE stop in Maine. It was the second fatal ICE traffic-stop shooting in a week. ICE paused most vehicle stops; Trump reversed the pause within a day, saying ICE could not give up 'THE TRAFFIC STOP!'

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

ICE Officer Fatally Shoots Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Construction Worker Who Was Not the Target, in Houston

An ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old construction worker with no criminal record, during a Houston vehicle stop in which he was not the person ICE was looking for. DHS claims self-defense; no officer wore a body camera. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and a county grand jury is investigating.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

U.S. Strike Destroys Iran's B1 Bridge, Killing Civilians on Nowruz Holiday

US forces destroyed Iran's landmark B1 bridge near Karaj in two strikes during Nowruz holiday celebrations, killing 8 civilians and wounding 95. The US military called the bridge a planned military supply route; Iran denies any military use, and no independent body has assessed the claim. The strike followed Trump's 'Stone Ages' threats against Iranian infrastructure.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Repeated Strikes Near Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant

Repeated strikes near an operating reactor in a city of 250,000 raise serious concerns under the customary duty to take particular care around installations containing dangerous forces (ICRC Rule 42). Imagery places the April impacts on an anti-aircraft site outside the plant fence; attribution of each strike is not independently confirmed, and no body has found that the plant itself was targeted.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Damage to Iranian UNESCO World Heritage Sites in US-Israeli Airstrikes

US-Israeli strikes have damaged UNESCO World Heritage Sites and over 100 cultural heritage sites across Iran, including Golestan Palace, Isfahan's Naqsh-e Jahan Square complex, the 8th-century Jameh Mosque, and prehistoric sites dating to 63,000 BC. Damage to cultural property is regulated by the 1954 Hague Convention and customary IHL. Intentionally directing attacks against historic monuments that are not military objectives is a war crime (Rome Statute art. 8(2)(b)(ix)); the documented damage so far was caused by strikes on nearby government buildings, and no investigative body has found that a heritage site was itself targeted.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

ICE Directed to Detain Lawfully Admitted Refugees Who Lack Green Cards After One Year (February 2026)

The administration told ICE it may arrest and hold refugees, who were vetted for years before admission, simply because they have not yet obtained green cards a year after arrival, even though the government itself has frozen many green-card applications. Refugees and resettlement agencies sued; as of mid-September 2026 the case was at cross-motions for summary judgment, with no final ruling.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Secret Cameroon Deportation Agreement and Torture of Deportees

The US secretly deported 17 people from 9 African countries to Cameroon under a covert agreement, including people with US court protections against return to their home countries. Cameroon detained them without legal basis, and journalists attempting to document conditions were arrested. HRW says the transfers to a country with a record of torture in detention breach the prohibition on refoulement.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

ICE Officer Christian Castro Indicted for Lying About Shooting Venezuelan Man Through a Closed Door in Minneapolis

An ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man through a closed door during the Minneapolis enforcement surge, then claimed he had been beaten with a shovel. The victims were charged, but those charges were dropped when video contradicted him. The officer now faces state assault charges and a six-count federal indictment for lying to the FBI. A federal prosecutor who reportedly said DOJ blocked a civil rights charge was fired.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Secretive $7.5 Million Deal Sends 66 Deportees to Equatorial Guinea, Then On to the Countries They Fled

A secret agreement with one of the world's most repressive regimes has sent 66 deportees to Equatorial Guinea, where they were detained and, in the case of all 29 on the first two flights, returned to their countries of origin, including people US judges had found would face persecution or torture there. The $7.5 million deal is part of a broader $40 million third-country deportation program targeting migrants from countries that will not accept their return.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Immigration Rocket Dockets: Mass Fast-Tracked Hearings and In Absentia Removal Orders

An accelerated immigration court system that fast-tracks cases through mass remote hearings, with two-thirds of all Somali cases nationwide rescheduled on short notice. The process systematically deprives respondents of due process, as the 2018–19 family rocket dockets showed, when 80% of completed cases ended in in absentia removal orders.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Border Patrol Agent Shoots US Citizen Marimar Martinez in Chicago; Prosecution Collapses as Evidence Contradicts DHS

A Border Patrol agent shot an American woman five times in Chicago. DHS called her a domestic terrorist and prosecutors charged her with assault, but video contradicted the government's account and the charges were dropped. The agent's texts boasted about the shooting and claimed support from senior officials.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

ICE Agent Kills Silverio Villegas González in Franklin Park, Illinois; Body Camera Undercuts DHS Account

An ICE agent shot a Mexican father of two in the back of the neck during a traffic encounter near Chicago. DHS said the agent was seriously injured and dragged; body-camera footage has the agent describing his injuries as 'nothing major.' Illinois police opened an investigation eight months later.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

'Camp 57': ICE Detainees Held in a Former Disciplinary Unit Inside Angola Prison (September 2025–)

DHS reopened a disused punitive unit inside the largest maximum-security prison in the US to hold civil immigration detainees, and said the prison's fearsome reputation was the point. One former detainee's account describes harsh conditions, which ICE denies; that detainee was deported in breach of a court order. ACLU Louisiana is challenging detentions there in court.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Midnight Deportation of 76 Guatemalan Children: Labor Day Weekend Mass Removal Attempt

The administration attempted a mass deportation of unaccompanied minor children in the middle of the night during a holiday weekend, circumventing legal protections that require children to appear before an immigration judge. A federal judge halted the operation after being awakened at 2:35 AM, but one plane had already taken off before turning around.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Expanded Travel Ban Targeting Up to 39 Countries, Predominantly Muslim and African Nations

A sweeping expansion of travel restrictions targeting predominantly Muslim-majority and African nations, growing from the original first-term ban to cover 39 countries. The bans affect millions of people and have been widely characterized as religious and racial discrimination codified into immigration policy.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Repeated US Vetoes of UN Security Council Gaza Ceasefire Resolutions

The US was the sole dissenter blocking Gaza ceasefire resolutions supported by all other Security Council members, while famine and allegations of genocide continued in Gaza. The pattern of vetoes enabled continued military operations with devastating humanitarian consequences.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Systematic Attacks on Press Freedom: Journalist Arrests, Detention, and Deportation

A systematic pattern of press freedom violations including the arrest of journalists covering immigration enforcement, and the deportation of a journalist to the country he fled due to death threats. Abroad, journalists covering US deportation operations have been detained by foreign authorities.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Third-Country Deportations to Rwanda, Ghana, and South Sudan

The US paid Rwanda, Ghana, Eswatini, and South Sudan to accept deportees who are not their nationals, in deals a federal judge ruled unconstitutional. HRW called the expulsion agreements violations of international human rights law, and domestic lawsuits in Ghana challenge the deal's legality.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

HHS Dismantlement Under RFK Jr. During the Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years

RFK Jr.'s dismantlement of federal health agencies during an active measles crisis — including firing vaccine advisors, cutting thousands of positions, and clawing back billions — coincided with the worst measles outbreak in 30+ years, which began in January 2025 before his confirmation, and degraded the federal response while America's measles-elimination status is threatened.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

HSI Agent Kills US Citizen Ruben Ray Martinez on South Padre Island; Federal Role Undisclosed for 11 Months

A federal immigration agent shot a 23-year-old American citizen through his car window at a South Padre Island traffic point. DHS said he deliberately ran over an agent; police body-camera video and the passenger's account describe a car barely moving. The federal role came out only through a records request 11 months later, and a grand jury declined to indict.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity

A Columbia graduate student with a green card was arrested by ICE for his role in Gaza solidarity protests and ordered deported on the novel grounds that his speech posed 'adverse foreign policy consequences,' establishing a dangerous precedent for using immigration enforcement to suppress political dissent.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Political Prisoners: Detention of Campus Activists for Pro-Palestinian Speech

At least five noncitizen activists and scholars were detained by ICE for pro-Palestinian campus activism or writings, with an estimated 300 student visas revoked. Internal documents confirmed the detentions were based on speech and protest activity, not immigration violations, and multiple federal judges ordered their release.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Mass Termination of Temporary Protected Status Across 11 Countries

TPS was terminated or targeted for termination across 11 countries, de-documenting over 1 million people. Federal courts have blocked or paused several terminations. The State Department maintains 'Do Not Travel' advisories for many of the same countries DHS claims are safe for return.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Mass Student Visa Revocations Targeting Pro-Palestine Protesters

Roughly 1,700 student visas or status records cancelled by April 2025, including hundreds in a campaign targeting pro-Palestine campus protest activity, with the State Department using AI screening and testifying that criticism of Israel could justify revocation. The campaign suppresses protected political speech through immigration enforcement.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Guantanamo Bay Immigrant Detention: Solitary Confinement and Ill-Treatment

Immigrants transferred to Guantanamo Bay face conditions that Human Rights Watch says may amount to ill-treatment prohibited under international law: isolation for up to 23 hours a day, punitive restraint in a chair, and incommunicado detention. ACLU and CCR lawsuits challenge the offshore detention as unconstitutional and beyond the authority of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Second-Term Transgender Military Ban: Executive Order 14183

The second-term ban was broader and more immediately disruptive than the first-term version. Executive Order 14183 directed the Secretary of Defense to update medical standards within 60 days and to issue implementing guidance within 30 days, mandating that transgender service members serve in their birth sex or face discharge. Service members who had been receiving hormone therapy and other gender-affirming medical care under a Biden-era policy would have that care immediately terminated. Legal challenges were filed promptly; district courts issued preliminary injunctions in March 2025, and in May 2025 the Supreme Court stayed one of them. Estimates of the number affected range from the 4,240 service members the Pentagon said in December 2024 had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria to advocacy estimates of about 15,000 transgender service members.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Suspension of Asylum at the Southern Border

The administration imposed an unprecedented total ban on asylum claims at the southern border, shutting down the CBP One app and eliminating all avenues for protection. A federal judge ruled the president 'cannot adopt an alternative immigration system which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted.'

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Intensified Cuba Sanctions Regime: Blackouts, Hospital Shutdowns, and Collective Punishment

The systematically intensified US sanctions regime against Cuba has caused 20-hour blackouts, hospital closures, medication shortages for 5 million chronically ill people, and collapse of essential services. UN experts warned the measures may amount to collective punishment of civilians under international human rights law.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Weaponization of the Department of Justice: Retaliatory Investigations and Prosecutions

Systematic weaponization of the DOJ through a retaliatory investigations unit, indictments of political opponents that were dismissed as brought by an unlawfully appointed prosecutor, mass departure of career prosecutors, and dismantlement of the Civil Rights Division and Public Integrity Section.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Systematic Destruction of Environmental Protections — Paris Agreement, UNFCCC, and Endangerment Finding

An unprecedented withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, UNFCCC, and IPCC, combined with the rescission of the endangerment finding and rollback of 31+ environmental rules, constitutes the most comprehensive destruction of environmental protections in US history. The actions remove the world's largest historical emitter from the international climate framework while eliminating domestic regulation of greenhouse gases.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

FEMA Dismantlement — Budget Cuts, Mass Layoffs, and Destruction of Disaster Response Capacity

A systematic effort to dismantle federal disaster preparedness and response capacity through budget cuts, mass layoffs, program terminations, and structural reorganization. FEMA's workforce has already shrunk by one-third, with plans to cut it in half. The disaster response workforce faces a 41% cut and the surge workforce an 85% cut, leaving the country dangerously unprepared for hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, and other disasters.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Rescission of ICE Sensitive Locations Policy — Churches, Schools, and Hospitals Open to Raids

The rescission of the sensitive locations policy removed decades-old protections for churches, schools, hospitals, and shelters (courthouse arrests were governed by a separate ICE directive, also loosened in January 2025) from immigration enforcement. The rescission coincided with a broader surge in arrests of non-criminal immigrants and chilled access to essential services including healthcare and education.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

PEPFAR Freeze: HIV/AIDS Treatment Cut for 20 Million People Across Africa

The administration froze PEPFAR on Day One, cutting antiretroviral therapy for an estimated 20 million HIV-positive people in sub-Saharan Africa. PEPFAR funded 70% of the global HIV response. Health workers reported clinics closing, drug supplies running out, and patients dying within weeks of the freeze. A Lancet HIV modelling study projects 0.77 to 2.93 million additional HIV-related deaths in 2025-2030 if PEPFAR support is discontinued alongside wider aid cuts, and far fewer if it is reinstated.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Deportation and Medical Neglect of Pregnant Women in ICE Custody

ICE deported 363 pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women in 13 months and recorded 16 miscarriages in detention. Women were shackled while miscarrying, denied prenatal care, and subjected to invasive procedures without consent -- all in violation of ICE's own 2021 directive against detaining pregnant individuals.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Systematic Racial Profiling in Immigration Enforcement and Wrongful Detention of US Citizens

Latinos account for 90% of ICE arrests, 76% of raids target majority-Latino neighborhoods, the Supreme Court has stayed an order barring stops based on apparent race, language, location and occupation, and at least 170 US citizens have been wrongfully detained — constituting systematic racial profiling in violation of equal protection and non-discrimination principles.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Trump and Giuliani Target Fulton County Election Workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss (2020–2021)

A sitting president and his lawyer publicly accused two named election workers of fraud that state officials had already debunked. The women received death threats and racist abuse, Freeman left her home on FBI advice, and both were later formally cleared. A jury ordered Giuliani to pay $148 million for defamation; Trump later pardoned Giuliani for federal 2020-election offences.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Portland: Federal Agents in Unmarked Vehicles Abduct Protesters Without Identifying Themselves

Federal agents from CBP, ICE, BORTAC, and other agencies, deployed by Trump to Portland amid George Floyd protests, began conducting clandestine arrests: pulling protesters into unmarked vans without identifying themselves, not stating reasons for arrest, and holding them briefly at the federal courthouse before release. Trump's acting DHS secretary and senior officials defended the tactics. Oregon's AG filed suit; a federal court issued a temporary restraining order protecting journalists and legal observers.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Federal Execution Restart: 13 Executions in 6 Months — Including First Woman in 67 Years

The Trump DOJ resumed federal executions in July 2020 after 17 years with no federal executions. The 13 executions were the most in any comparable period since at least the 1940s. Attorney General Barr overrode objections from career death penalty specialists about the single-drug protocol. Several executions proceeded after the Supreme Court vacated lower-court stays. Lisa Montgomery, the first woman executed by the federal government since 1953, was executed despite documented severe mental illness and a history of extreme childhood sexual abuse.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

George Floyd Protests: Lafayette Square Clearing, Militarized Response, Threat to Invoke Insurrection Act

The clearing of Lafayette Square occurred approximately 30 minutes before the 7:00 PM curfew was to take effect. Independent investigators and journalists documented that the protesters were peaceful at the time of the clearing. The Park Police used pepper balls and OC spray; the Interior Inspector General found three dispersal warnings were broadcast by loudspeaker but not everyone could hear them, and that CS gas used nearby on 17th Street was deployed by D.C. police. Trump had convened a call with governors the same day, calling them 'weak' and urging them to 'dominate' protesters. Attorney General Barr appeared in person to supervise the clearing. The Bible photo-op that followed was condemned by Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde, whose church was used as a prop without her knowledge or consent.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Lafayette Square: Federal Officers Forcibly Clear Protesters Before Curfew, Minutes Before Trump's Church Photo Op

Tear gas, pepper spray, and mounted police were deployed against peaceful protesters who were within their legal rights to be in Lafayette Square until the 7 PM curfew. The clearing operation began approximately 30 minutes before the curfew. Once the square was cleared, Trump walked out of the White House to St. John's Church, stood in front of it holding a Bible, and had photographs taken. The Episcopal bishop whose church was used said she was 'outraged' and had not been notified. Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley later apologized for participating in the walk. Defense Secretary Esper publicly opposed using active-duty troops as Trump had suggested.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

COVID-19 Pandemic Response: Deliberate Downplaying and Policy Failures Contributing to Preventable Deaths

Bob Woodward's taped interviews revealed Trump said in February 2020 that COVID-19 was 'deadly stuff' and 'more deadly than even your strenuous flus' — while publicly comparing it to the flu and calling Democrats' criticism of his response 'the new hoax.' The administration rejected WHO tests, blocked CDC mask guidance, slow-walked ventilator production, pressured states to reopen prematurely, promoted hydroxychloroquine against scientific evidence, and suggested people inject disinfectant. By Inauguration Day 2021, 400,000 Americans were dead.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

US–Guatemala Asylum Cooperative Agreement: Asylum Seekers Transferred to Guatemala Without a Hearing (2019–2020)

The US sent 939 Central American asylum seekers to Guatemala without letting them apply for asylum in the US. Guatemala's asylum system could not process their claims, and the HRW/Refugees International investigation found that almost none applied there and that some went home to the danger they fled. Transfers stopped in March 2020 because of Covid-19.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Children in Detention: Overcrowded Border Facilities and Humanitarian Conditions

The DHS Inspector General's July 2, 2019 management alert documented conditions at Border Patrol facilities in the Rio Grande Valley: some single adults held for over a month in overcrowded cells, standing room only conditions, limited access to showers and clean clothing, insufficient food, and inadequate medical care. The Clint facility conditions, documented by attorneys visiting to conduct interviews, included children sleeping on floors, a 2-year-old with dirty clothes, limited access to soap and toothbrushes, and sick children not separated from healthy ones. The administration's response was that the facilities were overwhelmed by a surge in arrivals and that Congress needed to provide additional funding.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Children in Cages: CBP Overcrowding, Freezing Cells, and Documented Child Deaths

The CBP Border Patrol stations along the southern border were designed for 72-hour holding. Under the Trump administration's enforcement surge, they held children for days and weeks, sometimes in chainlink-fenced areas — the 'cages' — without adequate food, water, sleep, or sanitation. At least six children died in or shortly after U.S. immigration custody between September 2018 and May 2019, after roughly a decade without a child death in CBP custody. The DHS OIG described overcrowding presenting an immediate risk to detainee health and safety.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Baghuz Strike: US Bombs Hit a Crowd of Mostly Women and Children in Syria; Military Hid It for Over Two Years (March 2019)

A US special-operations task force called in bombs on a crowd near Baghuz in 2019 that military investigators believed was mostly women and children. The strike was hidden from the public for more than two and a half years. The military later called it self-defence and justified; its count of civilian dead is far lower than its own investigators'.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Remain in Mexico (2019): Asylum Seekers Forced to Wait in Dangerous Border Cities; Appeals Court Finds Programme Likely Unlawful

The first Trump administration made tens of thousands of asylum seekers wait in Mexican border cities, among the most violent in the region, for US hearings they mostly faced without lawyers. HRW documented kidnappings and assaults and found the programme violated non-refoulement; a federal appeals court found it likely unlawful, but the Supreme Court let it continue.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

2018 Asylum Ban: Proclamation 9822 Bars Asylum for Anyone Crossing Between Ports of Entry

The administration tried to strip asylum eligibility from everyone who crossed the southern border between official crossing points, despite a statute that expressly allows them to apply. The courts blocked it, and the Ninth Circuit found it 'effectively a categorical ban' contrary to US law and refugee-treaty commitments.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Matter of A-B-: Sessions Declares Domestic- and Gang-Violence Asylum Claims Will 'Generally' Fail (2018)

Sessions used his power to rewrite immigration precedent to declare that people fleeing domestic or gang violence will generally not qualify for asylum. Its standards were applied at the border to screen people out before they could make their case; federal courts held key parts of that screening policy unlawful, and the decision was vacated in 2021.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) and Maximum Pressure Campaign

The IAEA confirmed Iran was fully complying with the JCPOA when Trump withdrew. His 'maximum pressure' campaign reimposed crippling economic sanctions, including on Iran's banking system, oil exports, and humanitarian goods. Iran resumed enrichment and crossed successive JCPOA limits. The campaign ended with the assassination of IRGC General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 and Iran further accelerating its nuclear program — ultimately leaving Iran closer to a bomb than when the deal was in force.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Hurricane Maria and the Federal Abandonment of Puerto Rico

Maria caused the largest blackout in U.S. history and destroyed Puerto Rico's infrastructure. The Trump administration delayed FEMA resources, deployed far fewer personnel and supplies than comparable mainland disasters, slow-walked waiver of the Jones Act, sent paper towels rather than aid at a critical moment, and accused Puerto Rican officials of corruption when they asked for more help. A Harvard-led survey estimated 4,645 excess deaths and a George Washington University study commissioned by Puerto Rico estimated 2,975; Puerto Rico's initial official count, repeated by federal officials, was 64.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Transgender Military Ban: Exclusion of Transgender Service Members via Tweet

Trump's tweet announcing the transgender military ban was not coordinated with military leadership. The Joint Chiefs issued an unusual public statement saying they would not change policy until they received 'formal guidance.' Multiple federal courts issued injunctions blocking the original ban. After losing court cases, the administration issued a modified 'Mattis plan' that imposed restrictions based on gender dysphoria treatment; it was implemented in 2019 and reversed by Biden in 2021. An estimated 14,700 transgender people were serving in the military.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Raqqa Bombardment: US-Led Coalition Strikes Killed More Than 1,600 Civilians in Four Months, Amnesty and Airwars Find (June–October 2017)

The US-led campaign to retake Raqqa from ISIS in 2017 used thousands of air strikes and some 30,000 unguided artillery rounds in a city full of trapped civilians. Amnesty and Airwars found more than 1,600 civilians reportedly killed; the coalition admits 159. Amnesty found prima facie evidence of unlawful attacks; no investigation has established individual criminal responsibility.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Navy SEAL Raid in Ma'rib, Yemen: Villagers Say Five Civilians Killed, Including a 15-Year-Old Shot While Fleeing (May 2017)

Four months after the deadly Yakla raid, US special forces raided another Yemeni village. The Pentagon reported seven al-Qaeda fighters killed and no civilian casualties; villagers said five civilians were killed, including a teenager shot while running away and an elderly man who mistook the soldiers for visitors.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Somalia Civilian Casualties: Loosened Targeting Rules and Transparency Rollbacks

Trump's Somalia designation and overall loosening of targeting rules — including relaxing the 'near-certainty' standard for civilian safety — significantly increased the pace of airstrikes across multiple theaters. Amnesty International documented civilian deaths in Somalia strikes that the US had said killed no civilians. The administration also reduced the reporting requirements for civilian harm assessments, eliminating the only systematic public accounting of civilian harm.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Mosul al-Jadida Airstrike: US Bomb Collapses Building on Sheltering Families, Killing At Least 105 Civilians (March 2017)

A single US bomb aimed at two ISIS snipers brought down a west Mosul building full of families, killing at least 105 civilians by the Pentagon's count. The US says hidden ISIS explosives caused the collapse and that it did not know civilians were inside. Amnesty found the coalition failed to take adequate precautions in a city where residents had been told not to flee.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Al-Jinah Mosque Strike: US Bombs Hit a Religious Gathering in Syria, Killing 38; UN Finds the US Failed to Take Feasible Precautions (March 2017)

A US strike on a mosque complex in northern Syria during a religious lesson killed 38 people. The US said it was targeting al-Qaeda; the UN Commission of Inquiry and Human Rights Watch found no evidence of that, and the UN found the US failed to take feasible precautions. The US investigation admitted a 'preventable error' in missing the building's religious use.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Travel Ban Expansions: From Muslim Ban to Permanent Entry Restrictions

The travel ban evolved through three executive orders as earlier versions were blocked by courts for discriminatory purpose and due process violations. The third version added non-Muslim-majority countries to provide legal cover, and was upheld by the Supreme Court 5-4 in June 2018. The Court's majority assumed it could look behind the proclamation but applied only deferential rational-basis review, under which the national-security justification sufficed despite Trump's public statements calling for a Muslim ban; Sotomayor's dissent quoted those statements at length and compared the ruling to Korematsu v. United States.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Yakla Raid: Trump's First Military Operation Kills Civilians and a U.S. Navy SEAL

The Yakla raid was authorized by Trump without the standard national security review process. The operation went wrong from the start: intelligence may have been compromised, the element of surprise was lost, and the ensuing firefight resulted in the deaths of a U.S. service member, three wounded Americans, and between 10 and 30 Yemeni civilians by different counts, including children. Among the civilians killed was 8-year-old Nawar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen — the daughter of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who had been killed in a 2011 Obama-era drone strike.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Muslim Travel Ban: Executive Orders 13769, 13780, and Presidential Proclamation 9645

Trump signed an initial travel ban on January 27, 2017, halting entry from seven Muslim-majority countries and suspending the refugee program. After courts blocked it, the administration issued revised versions that scaled back explicit language while preserving the core country-specific restrictions. The Supreme Court allowed a third version to take full effect in December 2017.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Muslim Ban Day One: Airport Detentions, Legal Chaos, Federal Stays

The executive order was signed without coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the Department of Defense, or the intelligence community. Customs and Border Protection received no guidance before implementation. Within hours, hundreds of travelers from the seven countries — including green card holders, refugees, and visa holders — were detained at airports or turned away from flights. Federal judges in New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Washington state issued emergency stays within 24-48 hours. The order was eventually replaced by revised versions that were also challenged legally; the Supreme Court upheld the third version in Trump v. Hawaii (2018).

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Travel Ban: Muslim-Majority Country Restrictions Through Three Iterations

The travel ban's anti-Muslim intent was documented in Trump's own public statements: before the first order, Trump had called for 'a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States'; Rudy Giuliani publicly stated Trump had asked him how to create 'a Muslim ban' legally. The first order's implementation — without agency coordination, applying immediately to green card holders, causing chaos and hundreds of detentions at airports — forced a broad injunction within hours. Courts repeatedly found discriminatory intent. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the third version, with Chief Justice Roberts's majority explicitly declining to assess whether the stated national security justification was pretextual.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

ICE Detention: Deaths, Abuse, and Inhumane Conditions in Immigration Detention Facilities

Under Trump, ICE detention grew from approximately 41,000 to over 55,000 people at peak. Press tallies put deaths in ICE custody at roughly 40 during the first term, including 21 in FY2020, the highest annual number since 2005. A DHS OIG inspection found spoiled and moldy food, nooses in cells, improper segregation and inadequate medical care. A Senate investigation found women at one Georgia facility were subjected to excessive, invasive and often unnecessary gynecological procedures.