We are watching the authoritarian playbook in action. Since the beginning of his second term, President Trump has led with cruelty and chaos, creating a human rights emergency by systematically eroding human rights protections, fostering a climate of fear and division, and undermining the rule of law.
The president, his administration, and appointees such as billionaire Elon Musk, have targeted and undermined vital U.S. and international systems, institutions, and initiatives designed to make ours a safer and fairer world, using authoritarian tactics, policies and rhetoric, and turbocharging harmful trends already present. This all-out assault threatens decades of painstaking work to build up and advance universal human rights and risks an acceleration of such practices globally.
Authoritarian tactics being deployed by the Trump administration:
- Dehumanizing and criminalizing migrants and refugees and ending all access to asylum.
- Imposing full or partial travel ban on visitors from 19 countries.
- Aggressively attacking free expression, demonizing protest, dissent, academic freedom, and debate.
- Misusing the justice system to target critics.
- Undermining press freedom and abusing the regulatory power of the Federal Communications Commission.
- Attacking the rights of women and the LGBTQQIA+ community with particular hatred for trans people.
- Eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs across all federal agencies.
- Withdrawing from and undermining the international system, including dismantling USAID.
- Removing checks on corporate accountability and slashing efforts to fight corruption.
This is happening amidst a global rise in authoritarian practices and attacks on international norms and institutions. In fact, the Trump administration’s anti-rights campaign is turbocharging harmful trends already present, gutting international human rights protections and endangering billions across the planet.
The Trump administration’s human rights and international law-averse foreign policy approach using blunt threats of military action, tariffs, and threats of taking over Greenland, the Panama Canal and the occupied Gaza Strip has caused chaos and confusion around the world. The domestic and global impacts and implications for human rights are severe, and the ripple effect of accelerating anti-rights policies and authoritarian practices elsewhere is visible.
Thanks to the “Trump-effect,” human rights abusers are being emboldened to roll back rights and silence dissent-accelerating the attack on the people who defend human rights and systems designed to protect and advance human rights. However, the consolidation of authoritarian practices is not inevitable. Human rights defenders, journalists, civil society organizations, and many others are documenting and exposing their impact.
Take Action to Dismantle the Mass Deportation Machine
Our current focus is on dismantling the mass deportation machine. Immigration detention in the U.S. is unnecessary, rife with systemic abuses, arbitrary, and unlawful under international human rights law. Detaining people solely on account of their immigration status constitutes arbitrary detention, a violation of international law. And the detention of families violates the U.S.’s obligations toward the treatment of immigrant children. Fearmongering false narratives about migrant crime and invasions at the border advances policies grounded in white supremacist ideas at the expense of immigrants and people in search of safety in the U.S.
Stop Mass Deportations
Within hours of his inauguration on January 20, 2025, US President Donald Trump declared an emergency at the southern border, suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program, and reiterated a mass deportation plan targeting millions of immigrants and people seeking safety. This cruel campaign is spreading fear, throwing people into arbitrary detention, returning people to harm, separating families and tearing apart communities.
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Shut down “Alligator Alcatraz”
The Everglades Detention Facility, also known as “Alligator Alcatraz”, opened in July 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to expand the reach of its mass deportation machine by partnering with state and local authorities. Within weeks of its opening, there have been reports of unsanitary conditions – including overflowing toilets and no working showers – lack of medical care, and minimal access to lawyers.
Immigration detention is cruel, unnecessary, and rife with abuses. This facility’s intentional cruelty is meant to criminalize and strike fear in immigrant communities. The facility is also located within the Everglades, a fragile ecosystem and one of Florida’s most ecologically sensitive area.
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Resistance to the Authoritarian Playbook Matters
“Your messages have kept me going. Still the fight is far from over, the genocide is still happening in Gaza, Israel is still waging a full war against Palestine. The U.S. government is funding this genocide, and Columbia University is investing in this genocide. This is why I was protesting, this is why I will continue protesting with every one of you, not only if they threaten me with detention. Even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Gaza.”
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil
On March 8, 2025, U.S. immigration authorities unlawfully arrested and arbitrarily detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and student organizer who recently graduated from Columbia University in the USA. A lawful permanent resident in the USA. Mahmoud was targeted for his role in student protests at Columbia University, where he was exercising his rights to freedom of expression and peacefully assembly in support of Palestinian rights. Authorities informed him that they had “revoked” his permanent residency status and placed him in deportation proceedings. He was not charged with a crime.
A worldwide campaign focused on Mahmoud Kahil’s case as emblematic of a broader effort by the Trump administration to suppress solidarity with Palestinian people and weaponize the immigration system.
On June 20, 2025, following an order by a U.S. federal judge, Mahmoud Khalil was finally released on bail from immigration detention and able to reunite with his wife and child.
Learn More
For more information, please contact Crisis and Tactical Campaigner Hilary Homes at the national office: hhomes@amnesty.ca.
