The Trump Administration Has ‘Gutted’ Federal Civil Rights Enforcement, Says Human Rights Group

The U.S. government under President Donald Trump has “gutted” federal civil rights enforcement mechanisms, according to the global human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch.

The report, Remedies Abandoned: US Civil Rights Enforcement Under the Trump Administration,” identifies and documents the various ways the administration has broken down civil rights enforcement across four key agencies between 2025 and 2026. The organization spoke to 40 people, including former agency staff, complainants, civil rights lawyers, and local community leaders for the report. HRW researchers also culled through court filings, agency and legislative records, news reporting, and other documentary sources.

HRW found that sexual orientation and gender identity were often scrubbed from historical sites, and those who had cases due to alleged discrimination because of their queer identity often had no investigation into their civil rights violation claims.

“We made sure that we could be the most innocuous organization that we could possibly be,” one queer service provider who runs an LGBTQ+ organization in Texas said, “without any super triggering words.”

The organization also had trans employees change their company bios in addition to other steps to ensure they wouldn’t be caught up in Trump’s anti-DEI sweep.

“There is a deep wound that has been created that even when this administration is gone will still be there. This is going to take generations to heal,” the worker told HRW.

According to the report, the evisceration was focused on: the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which lost about 75 percent of its attorneys; the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which moved to lay off nearly half its staff in one day and closed 7 of its 12 regional offices; the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Fair Housing Office, which shrank dramatically; and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which reached its lowest staffing levels in over 40 years.

“The Trump administration is targeting efforts to address discrimination without offering any alternatives,” Trey Walk, US program researcher at HRW, said in a statement. “While claiming to protect all Americans, the administration is rolling back systems that communities have long turned to for relief.”

HRW says that the efforts to restrict civil rights enforcement “are ongoing.”

It points to the decision by the Education Department in June to transfer civil rights investigations and enforcement to the Justice Department.
“It’s like a double punch: we’re not getting what we need, and also they’re attacking the programs we still have left,” an education attorney told Human Rights Watch. “People will self-censor, and we’ve seen it. School districts getting rid of programs before anyone comes after them because they don’t want to be the subject of investigation.”

The report points out that the civil rights enforcement system in the US comes from the Civil War as a way to protect Black citizens who were previously enslaved. Even the initial work of the Justice Department, created in 1870, first included going after violence caused by the Ku Klux Klan and also to protect Black people’s right to vote.

Almost 100 years later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 then became the foundation for modern rights enforcement by the federal government.

The report traces the dismantling of this apparatus, which HRW claims began the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. The administration abandoned many active cases. The Education Department didn’t resolve any racial discrimination cases last year – a year after HRW notes such cases hit a record high.

The department also reportedly stopped investigating claims of discrimination against or enforcing protections for transgender students.

“The federal government plays a unique and irreplaceable role in enforcing anti-discrimination laws. In some cases, federal law is more comprehensive than state laws, and in some cases, Congress gave federal agencies sole jurisdiction to bring these legal actions,” HRW states in the report.

In response to questions by HRW, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said that it would “address and deter unlawful discrimination wherever it exists” and would “no longer pretend federal civil rights laws protect only certain Americans.”

The organization recommends that due to the federal government stepping away, local governments should step in. It also urges elected leaders to work to re-establish civil rights enforcement in the country.

“While the federal government walks away from its obligations, states and cities should use every tool they have to hold the line,” Walk said. “But no action by other groups and agencies can fully replace what’s been dismantled in Washington. Congress should act now to repair this damage, before more people are left with no remedy.”