Human Rights Watch stands in solidarity with US civil society groups whose work to defend people's rights has been deliberately upended by Trump administration funding cuts. The sudden, destabilizing nature of these cuts is not a policy shift, but a direct and unjustifiable attack on the work of many important organizations.
In its first weeks in office, the administration has unleashed a barrage of sudden, draconian funding cuts that amount to a broad assault on human rights protections.
A particular focus has been the work of groups that provide vital support for immigrants and organizations that work to promote rights-respecting reforms in the criminal legal system. The elimination of federal funding has included unprecedented attacks on the rights of immigrants and a sharp turn away from efforts to promote accountable and non-discriminatory policing.
The first public wave of impacted groups included the Vera Institute, a prominent advocate of criminal legal system reforms, and Estrella del Paso, a group that provides vital services including legal support to migrants in El Paso, Texas. Funding for hundreds of other organizations has been slashed abruptly and without prior notice, with some being informed that the cuts were made because their work does not align with administration priorities.
