Rights Watch calls on Washington to stop the campaign against Hispanics | news

Human Rights Watch accused the US authorities of launching a continuous campaign of raids and arrests across the country to push forward the policy of mass deportation, a policy that the organization considered torn apart families and sparked terror among entire communities.

The human rights organization said – in a statement yesterday, Tuesday – that the campaign was launched in its most severe form in the city of Los Angeles last summer, paving the way for the use of the same methods in other American cities, and which relies largely on detaining people based on their ethnic appearance or national origins.

Rights Watch called on the US administration to stop the campaign, which it described as “violent” and which violates human rights on a large scale, according to what was stated in the statement.

The organization said that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials continue to pursue and detain those suspected of not having a residence permit, separating families, and terrorizing the community.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol, and other federal agencies have carried out hundreds of raids in places where Latinos work, frequent, or live since last May, and this has been accompanied by violence and disregard for human rights.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested food vendors and their customers, targeted car washes and other businesses staffed by Latinos, and raided Home Depot store lots where workers were looking for work.

Federal authorities in Los Angeles acknowledge that race, ethnicity, and national origin are major factors in the decision to detain individuals, and the Department of Homeland Security conducts similar campaigns in other cities.

The 2025 Federal Budget Act also allocated an unprecedented $170 billion for border enforcement, detention, and deportation.

Devastating damage

John Raveling, assistant director of the United States program at Human Rights Watch, said that the raids, which mostly target Latino communities, have caused devastating damage to the people of Los Angeles, and they are continuing and expanding as they spread to other American cities.

Raveling added that the campaign “tear[s]families apart, spreads fear, and exposes the cruelty of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.”

Human Rights Watch says it analyzed videos, photos, and written accounts in media and social media, and interviewed 39 people, including released detainees, families of detainees and deportees, eyewitnesses, community service providers, and one Los Angeles County official.

An analysis of ICE arrest data, excluding arrests carried out by other agencies, confirms that from May 28 to July 28 the number of arrests rose sharply, often targeting people without a criminal record in the United States.

Data also indicate that detainees are typically imprisoned in ICE detention centers pending completion of deportation proceedings, and some interviewees said that officials exerted “unlawful pressure on detainees to force them to agree to voluntary return.”

The video clips confirmed that the raids occurred without prior warning, as the agents arrived in unmarked cars and suddenly got out of them and surrounded the targeted people. The scenes and witness testimonies also show that the agents are usually armed with military weapons, wear civilian clothes or military uniforms, and often hide their faces with masks in an appearance that suggests that they are above the law.

There were incidents in which agents used excessive force, such as smashing car windows and forcibly dragging people from them. Detainees and their families said that they were subjected to “ill-treatment during transportation and in detention, by being shackled for long periods, depriving them of food and water, forcing them to sleep on the floor, and preventing communication with family or lawyers.”

Family members spoke of great psychological and physical damage as a result of separation from their loved ones and the financial burdens resulting from the loss of the breadwinner, in addition to the difficulty in paying the costs of caring for children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. These raids created a state of intense fear among the Hispanic population in Los Angeles.

Migrants interviewed also mentioned that they were afraid to appear in public places, which led them to miss graduation parties, medical appointments, and to miss work, according to “Rights Watch”, which recorded that the US government was committing “violations and putting Latino communities in a state of terror.” It also considered that increasing funding for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency in the absence of any accountability for its violations would cause “incalculable catastrophic damage.”