President Donald J. Trump was elected into office on November 6, 2024, and was inaugurated back into office for his second term in the White House on January 20, 2025. Since then, the president has applied many new policies that have led to this disturbing consideration of genocide.
In the year 2025 alone, under Trump’s administration, at least 30 to 32 deaths were reported to have taken place in ICE detention centers. This is the deadliest year reported in the last two decades. During Trump’s first term, between 2017 and 2021, 52 deaths were reported in total. In under one year, half of this number has been met. Research indicates that 95% of these deaths were preventable or considered preventable if adequate medical care had been obtained. The main causes of these deaths are due to medical neglect, suicide, COVID-19, and the lack of care for chronic conditions. The concerns for the quality of care have drastically increased due to a surge of detainees, which has reached the highest levels recorded, and a strain on the system.
Not only have there been losses in detention centers, but also on our own streets of our cities. Up to nine civilians have been shot or killed due to ICE starting in September 2025, often while still inside their vehicles. Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez was shot and killed in September 2025 in Chicago, as was Isaias Sanchez Barboza, who was shot and killed in December 2025 in Texas. Carlos Jimenez was shot in December 2025 in Los Angeles, and Keith Porter Jr. was fatally shot in December 2025 in Los Angeles. Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed in January 2026 in Minneapolis, and Alex Pretti was shot and killed in January 2026 in Minneapolis. In many of these cases, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that agents were firing in “self-defense,” alleging that vehicles were being used as weapons against them, but many videos and firsthand accounts have been released showing the opposite might be at play.
As of 2025-2026, the United States has been placed on international watchlists for a decline in civil freedoms and human rights by CIVICUS Monitor and Human Rights Watch. We joined CIVICUS’s watchlist in March 2025 and are placed alongside countries such as Kenya and El Salvador. This is due to a “serious decline” in our civic freedoms, military deployment against protesters, and a restriction on journalists. As for the Human Rights Watch, America made the World Report 2026 highlights as part of a global “peril” to human rights and undermining the rules of international order under the current administration, such as immigration policy and attacks on reproductive rights.
Countries around the world have been seeing it, many people in America have been seeing it, and it is the rise of an authoritarian government unfolding in America. The U.S. is increasingly cited for the risks of moving toward authoritarianism, with some organizations and analyses describing the state of our democracy as experiencing “significant, sustained damage.”
Not only are signs of authoritarianism being raised for concern, but also the parallels between America now and 1930s Germany. These views focus on extreme political contrast; these similarities are seen due to the post WWI/Great Depression misery compared to the living struggles after COVID-19 inflation, both of which fueled deep divides between the left and the right. This isn’t the only similarity; others include the rise of a populist leader, who appeals to the feelings of being left behind or humiliated, in the middle class. This presents him as the “only one” who can fix the nation’s problems. Scapegoating and demonization have been used, first by the Nazi party to target members of the Jewish communities, as well as minorities, using them as the reason behind Germany’s problems, similar to how immigrants are blamed for America’s problems today.
We cannot keep ignoring the signs of genocide in America today; we should not be placed next to countries like Turkey and Serbia on a global watch list. America is the “home of the brave and the land of the free,” where we have liberty and justice for all. We are a country that began with immigration. We cannot keep going with the dehumanization of people who disagree or look different from us. We must take action, we must do better.
