A new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) concludes that sweeping changes to staffing and policy under the Trump administration have effectively dismantled the federal government’s ability to monitor and enforce civil rights laws across the United States. The report, released on Thursday, warns that the rollback has left vulnerable communities with fewer avenues for relief from discrimination.
The rights group based its findings on interviews with former federal officials, community leaders, and civil rights lawyers, as well as a review of court filings and other records. HRW emphasized that the federal government holds a unique and irreplaceable role in enforcing anti-discrimination statutes, noting that in some cases federal law is more comprehensive than state law, and in others Congress granted federal agencies sole authority to bring legal actions.
According to the report, federal agencies with dedicated divisions for investigating discrimination in criminal justice, housing, education, and employment have been largely gutted since President Trump took office in January 2025. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division lost three-quarters of its lawyers by early 2026 and abandoned reform agreements previously secured with police departments in cities such as Louisville and Minneapolis. In nearly 70 cases nationwide, the department either stopped work, dismissed cases, or reversed its support for plaintiffs alleging discrimination.
The Department of Education, which handles complaints under federal laws barring discrimination in schools, laid off nearly half its staff in a single day and closed seven of its twelve field offices. The report notes that in the year before Trump took office, the department received a record number of complaints from Black and Latino students alleging discrimination; since then, it has resolved zero such cases.
Similar cuts were seen at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, whose fair housing division dropped at least 115 complaints without issuing any findings, and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which fell to its lowest staffing levels in four decades. The report comes amid high-profile court rulings, including by the US Supreme Court, that have upended long-standing legal provisions used to protect minority access to polls and fair representation in electoral districts.
“The Trump administration is targeting efforts to address discrimination without offering any alternatives,” said Trey Walk, US program researcher at HRW, in a statement. He accused the administration of rolling back systems that communities have long relied on for relief while claiming to protect all Americans. HRW is also among several leading human rights organizations that recently sued the administration over its sanctions campaign against the International Criminal Court, arguing the measures risk violating the constitutional rights of US citizens and groups cooperating with the tribunal.