Unreported in FBI Hate Crimes Data: Immigrant Purges Leave Communities At Risk
In August, the FBI released its 2025 Hate Crimes statistics, which showed a decrease in the overall number of reported hate crimes. A decline from an historic peak, however, is not synonymous with safety. Instead of settling into complacency or believing the work is done, we, as organizations representing a range of religious, ethnic, and other vulnerable communities, are warning that the data released by the FBI is incomplete and fails to capture the real risks to our communities.
While any reported decrease in threats is welcome, these numbers remain historically high, especially compared to pre-pandemic totals. And, because of a number of deliberate policy choices being made by the current administration — particularly the increase in aggressive immigration enforcement, dramatic funding cuts, and continued extremist rhetoric — we are concerned that the reporting is becoming less reliable even as threats are increasing.
The true picture of hate crimes in America is hidden by this report in a number of ways:
1. Unreliable Data
We know that the data in this report is historically unreliable. Even according to the FBI’s own 2025 data, thousands of law enforcement agencies, serving populations that total approximately 17 million people, refused to report any hate crimes statistics at all.
Among the cities that did report hate crimes, we know that many additional crimes and incidents may yet be unreported because the police who responded did not classify them as hate crimes or chose not to share accurate data with the FBI. Grants and other programs that were created to help prevent hate crimes and report incidents have been abruptly terminated by the Trump Administration and Department of Justice, despite bipartisan support for such measures.
We also know that still other crimes were not reported at all by communities due to even greater mistrust and lack of confidence in law enforcement. The influx of violent, masked, and poorly trained immigration enforcement agents into our communities has created fear and confusion about the role and reliability of law enforcement more broadly. Community members are afraid to report crimes because they are afraid of retaliation, deportation (despite traditionally being eligible for a U-Visa as a victim or witness), or otherwise exposing their community to the public safety risk of violent and oppressive immigration enforcement.
2. Increasing Threats
Despite persistent underreporting, hate and violence continue to rise. While some communities did see a decrease, Sikh, Hindu, and Buddhist communities have documented increases in hate crimes, and the prevalence of anti-immigrant, Islamophobic anti-Arab, anti-Hispanic and Latino, anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ+, and antisemitic rhetoric and action are still creating new threats daily. Moreover, political leaders have normalized conspiracy theories and hateful rhetoric that were once relegated to the fringe, leaving all communities at risk. Hate speech online, which is known to lead to violence, is spreading unchecked. This includes large and growing platforms such as social media, video games, and streaming that shape the minds of so many.
From targeting houses of worship and congregants under the guise of protesting political differences, to the use of bigoted conspiracy theories like the debunked “Great Replacement” theory, to justify dehumanizing policies, extremism is on the rise — and without a reliable hate crimes report and comprehensive prevention programs, we will not be able to understand and respond to the reality of hate impacting all our communities.
3. Less Security
At a time of growing threats to communities, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has not only failed to prioritize our protection but has also ceased meaningful engagement with many of the organizations that represent those most frequently targeted by hate. In neglecting its core mission, the Division has redirected its resources toward interpretations of civil rights law that legitimize and risk emboldening actors who traffic in hate, exclusion, and intolerance. And in some cases, like of white supremacist violence or the numerous Black bodies found hanging from trees across the country, necessary hate crimes investigations have not even been initiated, while others have been granted pardons. The FBI has similarly pulled back from engagement with civil rights and community partners that have long served as trusted intermediaries for reporting hate crimes, identifying patterns of violence, and raising community concerns. At the same time, the Administration and the partisan majority in the 119th Congress have targeted leading anti-hate organizations, including groups that have historically monitored extremist activity and supported vulnerable communities.
At the same time, policies aimed at maximizing deportations have exacerbated these problems and left our communities at risk, as Department of Justice staff and FBI agents have been reassigned to focus on immigration enforcement. Finally, many programs that have helped communities build resilience to hate crimes have been completely cut and abandoned. In 2025, the DOJ moved to rescind or terminate $46 million in grant funding intended for hate crime prevention and response initiatives. Other programs, like the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, have been laden with mismanagement as well as new terms and conditions based on politics, not security, that make these grants less accessible to many of the communities that feel the greatest threat. As a result, communities facing rising threats are being left more vulnerable by the very institutions charged with protecting them. The erosion of education, federal partnerships, prevention programs, and civil rights enforcement has not merely reduced support, it has compounded the risks facing communities already targeted by hate and violence.
Recommendations
The FBI’s statistics do not exist in a vacuum. They are being released at a moment when community trust is being undermined by immigration enforcement policies, bigotry and violence as responses to political differences are being mainstreamed, anti-hate organizations are being targeted and sidelined, federal resources are being shifted away from preventing and responding to hate crimes, and critical programs that help vulnerable communities protect themselves are being curtailed.
Taken together, these actions weaken our nation’s ability to monitor hate, support victims, prevent violence, and keep communities safe. Policymakers should not mistake lower reported numbers for evidence of progress when many of the very mechanisms designed to confront hate are themselves being dismantled.
If we want to see a true decrease in hate crimes, we must:
- Fully fund and restore hate crime prevention and response programs, including the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer NO HATE Act, Community Approaches to Advancing Justice grants, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and the Emmett Till Cold Case Investigations Program.
- Fully fund and restore the Community Relations Service, the federal government’s dedicated capacity for mediating community conflict and preventing escalation.
- Pass the bipartisan Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act (IRPHA) to improve statistical hate crime data sharing from major law enforcement agencies.
- Ensure greater funding for, reasonable application timelines for, and equitable access to Nonprofit Security Grants without any terms and conditions that are unrelated to security.
- End 287(g) agreements that use local police as immigration officers and increase accountability for police brutality, discrimination, and profiling.
- Fully fund comprehensive community-based approaches to addressing hate crimes that promote education, community awareness, and preparation.
- Oppose any new funding or grant terms to directly or indirectly pursue immigration enforcement unless there are new provisions that protect the constitutional rights of all.
- Reject and condemn dehumanizing rhetoric from public officials of every party, recognizing that words from positions of authority shape what people believe is permitted.
- Support measures to further increase the public’s Increased media literacy to identify and combat conspiracies and hate speech from all individuals and movements that promote violence.
Signed by:
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Human Rights Campaign
Muslim Public Affairs Council
National Urban League
Sikh Coalition
UnidosUS
American Atheists
APRI A. Philip Randolph Institute
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance-AFLCIO (APALA)
CenterLink
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
Faiths for Safe Water
Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice
Hindus for Human Rights
Japanese American Citizens League
Jewish Community Action
Jewish Labor Committee
LGBT Tech
Movement Advancement Project
Muslim Civic Coalition
National Council of Jewish Women
National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund
National Organization for Women
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies
The Nexus Project
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
SAGE
Sakhi for South Asian Survivors
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF)
South Asian Legal Defense Fund
South Asian Network
Southern Poverty Law Center
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Union of Reform Judaism
