We are tracking developments as they are announced. Check back as the first 100 days of Trump’s second term continue.
When U.S. President Trump took office for his second term, his administration immediately issued a cascade of measures to implement a “shock and awe” agenda. By all indications, Trump’s executive actions have already undermined human rights and access to health care, both in the United States and across the globe. Several executive actions signed by the president target people seeking asylum and other migrants to the United States, while other new policies erode public safety, jeopardize reproductive health, and undermine global health cooperation. Taken together, President Trump’s policy agenda looks to compound suffering, threaten public health, and violate fundamental rights.
In Trump’s first 100 days and beyond, PHR will be mobilizing our networks of clinicians and expert teams of lawyers, policy and human rights advocates, and researchers to protect the right to seek asylum, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, the right to comprehensive reproductive care, and the right to health, among others.
As an organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights and health, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is alarmed at the dangerous trajectory of these policies. In Trump’s first 100 days and beyond, PHR will be mobilizing our networks of clinicians – including nurses, doctors, and psychologists – as well as our expert teams of lawyers, policy and human rights advocates, and researchers to protect the right to seek asylum, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, the right to comprehensive reproductive care, and the right to health, among others.
Here’s a look at executive actions taken by President Trump in his first 100 days. Updated February 10, 2025
Attacks on Immigrants and Dismantling the Right to Seek Asylum
President Trump’s 2025 executive actions dismantled immigration and asylum policies and scaled up cruelty. It is now even more difficult for individuals fleeing violence and persecution to seek refuge in the United States, especially those seeking to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. With the Lake Riley Act now enshrined in federal law, immigrant communities will become increasingly criminalized and immigration detention will drastically expand, putting asylum seekers and immigrants at risk. In another alarming move, the Trump administration prepared the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba to detain migrants and began to send people to the infamous site. PHR has been at the forefront of defending the rights of people seeking asylum and has meticulously documented the widespread abuses that occur in U.S. immigration detention centers. PHR exposed the profound harm – indeed torture – to children and parents inflicted by the Trump administration’s policy of family separation, a practice now at risk of resurgence under new executive actions targeting immigrants and asylum seekers.
As the government dismantles long-standing protections and accelerates policies designed to deter people from seeking asylum in the United States – and expel those that already have made it into the country – PHR’s 2,000-strong Asylum Network continues to provide pro bono forensic medical evaluations to support ongoing asylum cases. With our partners, PHR will continue to defend the internationally recognized right to seek asylum and advocate for the dignity, health, and safety of immigrants put at risk by punitive U.S. policies.
Read PHR’s statement on Trump’s new executive orders on asylum and immigration, our reaction to the rescinding of the “sensitive locations” policy, and our reaction to the plan to use Guantánamo Bay prison to detain migrants.
Freezing of International Aid
In a move that continues to cause widespread confusion and suffering, the Trump administration issued a stop-work order for foreign aid, including financial assistance to non-profit organizations through multiple branches of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), halting billions of dollars worth of international assistance programs. After putting USAID employees on administrative leave, the administration fired thousands , retaining fewer than 300. The United States imperils millions by shuttering USAID; in cutting off life-saving food, medicine, and other vital health services, the U.S. government further jeopardizes the health of populations already enduring conflict, displacement, and insecurity, including women and children.
PHR is one of the hundreds of organizations that have been hit directly by Trump’s reckless 90-day freeze of federal grants. These jeopardize PHR’s ability to deliver vital programming and advocacy in conflict-affected contexts such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine. PHR urges the administration to reinstate vital funding for health and human rights sectors, as well as other essential work by our partners and other beneficiaries of U.S. foreign aid.
Attacks on Abortion Rights
Among the first actions taken by President Trump in 2025 was the reinstatement and expansion of the so-called Global Gag Rule, a policy that prohibits organizations that receive U.S. global health assistance from providing legal abortion services or referrals, while also barring advocacy for abortion law reform – even if it is done with the NGO’s own, non-U.S. funds. By restricting U.S. funding for organizations that provide comprehensive reproductive health services, the Trump administration is threatening the health and rights of millions of women, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Meanwhile, here in the United States, President Trump pardoned 23 anti-abortion extremists who attacked abortion clinics and harassed clinicians. The pardons come as anti-abortion officials in states like Louisiana and Texas use the courts to target doctors who mail abortion medications across state lines.
PHR recognizes that access to abortion care is part of reproductive rights and justice, whether abroad or here in the United States. PHR’s research with our partners have exposed the unworkability and harms of abortion bans in several U.S. states including Idaho, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Florida, impacting clinicians and patients alike. We commend state governments like that of New York which are redoubling their commitment to shield health workers in their state from prosecution and other penalties under other state’s bans. We call for an end to the criminalization of abortion care, for both patients and clinicians alike.
Ending Bans on “No-Knock” Warrants, Choke Holds, and Militarized Policing
Another troubling first move by the Trump administration in 2025 was the reintroduction of federal “no-knock” warrants, which allow law enforcement officers to enter private homes without prior notice or announcement, and an end to the federal ban on the use of choke holds. This move reverses important reforms that sought to end these dangerous practices and increases the risk of deadly confrontations between law enforcement and communities of color. Both the use of no-knock warrants and choke holds have already led to numerous high-profile cases of police violence, often with fatal consequences, and disproportionately impact Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities.
In a separate Executive Order primarily focused on commemorating the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the Trump administration also reinstated its first-term orders framed around protecting government monuments, memorials, and statues. This order was part of the legal basis that the first Trump administration designed to enhance the policing of racial justice protests in the summer of 2020, including through the use of federal forces against communities across the United States. In this newly reconstituted order, this is expanded to include “pro-Hamas-related vandalism,” following popular protests, including student protests, across the United States centered on the conflict in Gaza. Taken together, these moves represent threats to the right to peaceful protest and a chilling effect on freedom of expression.
PHR has documented excessive force used by law enforcement against communities across the United States, including the dangerous and sometimes deadly use of crowd-control weapons. Our work has also helped debunk pseudo-scientific terms with racist origins like “excited delirium”, motivating leading medical associations and multiple U.S. states to ban the term.
Withdrawal from the World Health Organization and other International Bodies
One of the first major actions taken by President Trump in 2025 was to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). This decision directly undermines international health cooperation, weakening global efforts to combat infectious diseases, and limiting access to health care resources in countries that need it most. The United States’ exit from the WHO reduces the ability of health professionals around the world to coordinate responses to health emergencies and threatens the global health infrastructure that has been vital in preventing and managing public health crises. These actions limit the United States’ ability to confront the active outbreaks of avian flu, Ebola, and Marburg virus – threatening the health of people in the United States and abroad alike. PHR has long supported the work of the WHO in promoting universal access to health care and addressing health inequities. PHR has documented how the Trump administration’s previous efforts to distance the United States from international health organizations have had damaging effects on global health, including during emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
In February, President Trump signed another Executive Order ending U.S. participation in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and ordered a review of the U.S. relationship with all other international bodies. Unlike the U.S. withdrawal from the UNHRC during the first Trump administration, the U.S. is not currently a Member State of the UNHRC, so its withdrawal will be less immediately disruptive. However, by exiting these multilateral fora, the United States will be abandoning its leadership on the global stage in addressing, mitigating, or shaping human rights and other crises around the world.
Sanctions Against the International Criminal Court
In January 2025, President Trump revoked the Biden Administration’s previous order that rescinded the first Trump administration’s sanctions against officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. In February, the president issued sanctions against individuals and their families who assist the ICC in investigations of citizens of the United States or its allies who are not a state party to the Rome Statute. U.S. Congress is actively considering legislation that would enact new, far-reaching sanctions against the ICC, as well as individuals cooperating with the ICC.
PHR has long supported the work of the ICC in bringing justice to victims and survivors of atrocities, particularly in places where local justice systems are unable or unwilling to hold perpetrators accountable. The ICC remains a vital part of the global justice infrastructure that helps ensure reparations for victims and survivors of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. PHR renews its call for the United States to lift any sanctions or penalties against individuals for their work supporting justice and accountability in the international court system and continues its long-standing call on the United States to join the Rome Statute supporting this international court of last resort.
Physicians for Human Rights will continue to monitor these developments and advocate for the rights of those most at risk. To stay informed on the ongoing impact of these policies, please subscribe for updates and explore our resources.