The “racist hate speech” being used by Donald Trump and other US political leaders, along with the country’s intensified crackdowns on migration, has led to “grave human rights violations,” a UN watchdog has said.
In a non-binding decision issued this week, the UN‘s committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (CERD) called on the US to uphold its obligations as a signatory to the international convention on combating racism and discrimination.
The panel of 18 independent experts said it was deeply disturbed by the growing use of derogatory and dehumanising language as well as harmful stereotypes being used to target migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers.
“Portraying them as criminals or as a burden, by politicians and influential public figures at the highest level, particularly the president, may incite racial discrimination and hate crimes,” it said, in what appeared to be an unprecedented singling out of comments made by a US president.
Trump has long sought to blame immigrants for crime, despite a wide range of statistics showing that they bolster the US economy and commit crimes at far lower rates than people born in the US.
The five-page decision also documented widespread concerns with measures adopted by the Trump administration to tackle migration, from the “systematic use of racial profiling” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staff as well as border patrol agents, to reports of “discriminatory, dangerous and violent methods” that have been linked to the deaths of at least eight people since January 2026.
In Minneapolis, where federal immigration agents flooded the streets this year, the panel pointed to a “pattern of serious human rights violations”.
The deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, who died in separate shootings at the hands of federal agents in the city, could amount to “gross violations of international human rights law, and could constitute extrajudicial killing of two peaceful protesters,” it noted.
The panel said it was deeply concerned by the “drastic increase” in people being placed in migrant detention, from nearly 40,000 in late 2024 to about 73,000 at the start of this year.
At least 675,000 people had been deported since Trump returned to power in January 2025, the panel noted, while the administration also moved to strip legal status from hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were legally living in the US.
The reports of people being held in “inhumane conditions” and receiving “inadequate medical care” were concerning, it said, noting that at least 29 migrants had died in these facilities last year and six in January this year.
The panel issued a decision after the American Civil Liberties Union called on it to weigh in on potential rights violations in the administration’s crackdown in Minnesota.
Previous US governments, including those led by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have also been criticised by the panel. Neither of them were singled out for their rhetoric, however, while this time the UN-backed body specifically cited Trump’s speech as problematic.
A spokesperson for the White House brushed off the report, instead citing Trump’s efforts to secure the country’s borders.
“This United Nations assessment is just as useless as their broken escalator, and their extreme bias continues to prove why no one takes them seriously,” Olivia Wales said in a statement to reporters.
“No one cares what the biased United Nations’ so-called ‘experts’ think, because Americans are living in a safer, stronger country than ever before,” she added.
