The Trump administration has gutted federal civil rights enforcement in the United States, leaving the people the laws were built to protect without adequate remedies, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 112-page report, "Remedies Abandoned: US Civil Rights Enforcement Under the Trump Administration," documents the administration's efforts to unravel the work of four key agencies between January 2025 and the spring of 2026: 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," said Trey Walk, US program researcher at Human Rights Watch. "While claiming to protect all Americans, the administration is rolling back systems that communities have long turned to for relief."
The administration's efforts are ongoing. As recently as June 16, 2026, the Education Department announced it would transfer civil rights investigation and enforcement functions to the Justice Department, continuing the agency's evisceration.
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 40 people, including former agency staff, complainants, civil rights lawyers, and local community leaders. Researchers also examined court filings, agency and legislative records, news reporting, and other documentary sources.
"It's like a double punch: we're not getting what we need, and also they're attacking the programs we still have left," one 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 United States' civil rights enforcement system has its origins in efforts after the Civil War to protect newly freed Black citizens. Congress created the Justice Department in 1870, and its early work focused on prosecuting Ku Klux Klan violence and defending Black voting rights.
Because states continued to deny certain groups equal treatment, Congress expanded anti-discrimination laws a century later. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 became the foundation for modern rights enforcement by federal agencies.
Dismantling this apparatus began the first day of President Donald Trump's second term in office. The administration offered mass buyouts to staff in the name of increasing government efficiency, with the effect of clearing out nonpartisan career civil servants in key civil rights enforcement posts. It issued executive orders prohibiting diversity programs and undermined the long-standing independence of the Justice Department. Some patterns emerged across the agencies Human Rights Watch examined, including barring staff from communicating with discrimination victims whose cases they had been working to advance and leaving several important investigations in limbo.
The administration abandoned many active cases. It moved to dismiss police reform agreements in jurisdictions like Louisville and Minneapolis, and it removed its support from important voting rights cases. One watchdog group counted nearly 70 matters on which the Justice Department stopped working, dismissed, or reversed its position.
The Education Department appears not to have resolved any racial harassment cases in 2025, following a year in which Black and Latino students' complaints to the office reached a new record. The department also reportedly ceased monitoring complaints of discrimination against or enforcing protections for transgender students. The Housing Department closed at least 115 fair housing complaints without issuing findings on the underlying discrimination claims.
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.
At the same time, private lawyers and nonprofit groups that bring similar claims are under strain. The administration targeted law firms that did pro bono work that it did not like and cut funding for local fair housing groups. Nonprofit civil and human rights groups do not have the capacity to fully close the resulting gaps.
The administration has also directed federal agencies to curtail their analysis of disparate impact, the framework that recognizes discrimination by its effects rather than intent. Agencies began dropping disparate impact rules in December 2025 and have continued since. The discrimination many people experienced is the result of laws that are neutral on their face, and the federal government has long played an essential role in addressing this problem.
The administration has also threatened and tried to end programs that are meant to address the ongoing impacts of historical discrimination. The Justice Department, Department of Education, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have each followed the White House's lead in threatening institutions with diversity plans. This includes programs meant to increase the number of underrepresented racial minorities in PhD programs and classroom teaching roles. The administration has not offered an alternative to address the underlying exclusion these programs aimed to correct.
Human Rights Watch wrote to all four agencies and the White House counsel before publication summarizing its findings and requesting comment. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in response 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 administration's actions documented by Human Rights Watch show that not everyone in the United States is receiving equal legal protections.
"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."
