GENEVA: A UN watchdog warned on Wednesday that racist hate speech by US President Donald Trump and other political leaders coupled with intensified immigration crackdowns were fuelling grave rights violations.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination highlighted the growing “racist hate speech” targeting migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the United States.

It also pointed to the use of “derogatory and dehumanising language” and harmful stereotypes targeting the same people.

These groups have been portrayed “as criminals or as a burden, by politicians and influential public figures at the highest level of the state party, particularly its president”, the group said in an urgent report.

This “fosters intolerance and may incite racial discrimination (and) hate crimes”, it warned.

The CERD also voiced grave concern over the “systematic use of racial profiling” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other officers deployed in Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The targeting of “persons of Hispanic/Latino, African or Asian origin and arbitrary identity checks… have reportedly resulted in the widespread arrest of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and persons perceived as such”, it said.

At least 675,000 people had been deported since January 2025, when Trump returned to power, it noted. The CERD is composed of 18 independent experts tasked with monitoring how countries implement an international convention on eliminating racism.

‘Excessive force’

Denounced the “excessive use of force during immigration enforcement operations”, the committee noted that at least eight people had died since January during ICE operations or while in ICE custody.

The CERD report followed an urgent submission from the American Civil Liberties Union in February asking it to investigate rights violations during the Trump administration’s dramatic immigration crackdown in Minnesota and elsewhere.

That request was filed under the CERD’s early warning and urgent action procedure, which allows it to address urgent matters arising between its regular sessions.

Thousands of federal agents including ICE agents earlier this year carried out weeks of sweeping raids and arrests in Minnesota in what the Trump administration claimed were targeted missions against criminals.

The controversial operation ended last month after growing outrage over the killings of two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the arrest of a five-year-old.

‘Inhuman conditions’

Wednesday report from the CERD called on Washington to “ensure accountability, including by conducting effective, thorough and impartial investigations” into all alleged abuses.

It also condemned the “drastic increase” in the number of detainees held at immigration detention facilities. The numbers reportedly rose from 40,000 in late 2024 to around 73,000 at the start of this year.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2026