In Colorado, ICE smashes the window of a car with a 1-month-old inside, his mother crying out, “There’s a baby in here!”

A family of four in Chicago is surrounded at Millennium Park by heavily armed and masked immigration agents, while the 8-year-old daughter clutches her doll and sobs. The mother holds her 3-year-old son while all of them are detained.

A 6-year-old, her 19-year-old brother and mother are stopped at a immigration check-in in New York and detained.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a 13-year-old recently in Massachusetts and whisked him away to Virginia.

These incidents are not exceptions, but a common story. In the New York City area, for example, ICE has detained at least 50 children.

Though immigrant youth have been targeted, U.S.-born Black children have not been spared. About 300 federal agents executed an immigration raid, resulting in shocking and heartbreaking scenes in a South Side apartment building in Chicago. Crying children being led out of their apartment as it was tossed. When community members in Chicago denounced the zip-tying of children, who were also separated from their family members, an ICE officer was overheard saying “f— those kids.”

In addition to the initial violence of the stops, children have been incarcerated in spaces not made to hold them. Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana is designated for adult males but has had at least 18 children detained between January and July. Meanwhile, even facilities designed to imprison families have major problems, including delayed medical care for children, extreme temperatures and undrinkable tap water — and the government is charging children and families money for bottled water.

The administration is also arguing in court to reduce the protections on detained children, including limits on how long they can be held and requirements of providing sanitary conditions for children.

In parallel to the abuses within the immigration enforcement system, the government is trying to fill youth incarceration facilities by encouraging “tough on crime” approaches, even when crime is the lowest it has been in decades. President Trump recently claimed in Washington that “caravans of mass youth rampage through city streets at all times of the day” — which is not true.

Instead of policies that reduce crime, we get this rhetoric of locking up “bad children.” After a significant drop in the last two decades, youth incarceration rates are increasing. Racial disparities in youth imprisonment are the widest they have been in decades, even though crime is at historic lows. Youth behavior has not become more violent, but adult reactions to youth behavior have become more punitive. More laws and policies actively punish young people for minimal infractions.

The administration is also seeking to remove youth from their homes and put them into government custody. These “welfare checks” are at times being done by FBI or Homeland Security agents instead of those trained in social welfare. And yet once youth are in government custody, they are not protected.

Targeting communities of color and immigrant communities, the Trump administration is using every tactic it can dream up to break apart families. One initiative dubbed “Freaky Friday” offers children in custody up to $2,500 to leave the U.S. Originally slated for young people as young as 14 years old, this payment would theoretically be made after “an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin.” But it would be extremely difficult for young people to receive any such payment from the government after reaching their country of origin. Worst, this program’s financial pressure on vulnerable children disregards the dangers they faced when they fled their homes in the first place.

Moreover, the administration attempted to deport a large number of Guatemalan children over Labor Day weekend, with at least 76 children being boarded onto planes, and possibly more en route, before a judge issued a restraining order.

Such actions have left immigrant children languishing in government custody, whether in detention facilities, hotels or group homes, for longer periods, instead of being reunited with family.

Violent arrests, dangerous detentions and prolonged incarceration show that the purposeful criminalizing of immigrants and Black folks is not only harmful to adults but also traumatizes children. Just witnessing a parent’s arrest can have negative mental health impacts on young children. When a youth is arrested, their life outcomes are negatively affected, including an increase in chances of leaving school, higher rates of depression and suicidal thoughts. Youth who have experienced incarceration are less likely to find stable housing and employment as adults and six times more likely to experience early death compared with non-incarcerated youth. All of these negative outcomes are also accompanied by extreme cost. The average cost of incarcerating a youth in a secure facility is about $214,620 per year.

The punitive approach does not make sense as social policy, but it serves a purpose for the Trump administration by turning vulnerable populations into scapegoats. U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro recently said: “I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the hell out of you.” Trump recently said of Baltimore youth: “They’re not going to be good in 10 years, in five years, in 20 years, in two years they’re going to be criminals. They were born to be criminals.”

Such words remind us that some officials see many Black and immigrant youth as criminals meant to be punished, not as children meant to be protected. The rhetoric and policies of the administration, including cuts to evidence-based programs that actually reduce violence, confirm that this administration does not care about the cost to the young people violently arrested and incarcerated, nor about the cost to society. Instead of approaching all children with care, the administration has waged war on immigrant and Black youth. And it is a war that benefits no one.

Subini Annamma is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. David Stovall is a professor of Black studies and criminology, law and justice. Both research the criminalization of students in schools and society.

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RIVERSIDE, CA — Students at UC Riverside established an encampment in the middle of campus to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza, joining nearly a dozen universities across California and numerous nationwide to demand the school end “all investments and endowments” benefiting the Jewish state.

“We are joining the student movement, the student Intifada,” according to an unnamed spokeswoman for Students for Justice in Palestine, UCR chapter. “We are not leaving this encampment day and night until the university complies and meets with us to discuss our demands.”

The encampment was set up Monday, with several dozen tents placed on the green adjacent to the campus Bell Tower, recognized as the center of UCR.

Campus administrators did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The specific number of students participating in the peaceful campus demonstration could not be confirmed. On Wednesday, a group of students staged a midday walkout from classes and held a rally at the tower, chanting “Israel is a racist state!” and “Free, free, free Palestine!”

There was no obvious law enforcement presence, and no campus buildings appeared to be obstructed.

The “demands” issued by the SJP UCR chapter included “a full transparent disclosure of all investments and endowments in weapons manufactures and the Israeli genocidal machine,” as well as a “full divestment from weapons manufacturers and any corporations that either fund or profit off the genocidal machine.”

The SJP-UCR representative noted there is no “standing university in Gaza” due to the unabated bombing campaign since early October conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces using U.S.-supplied drones and fighter-bombers.

The chapter spokeswoman alleged American “universities are complicit in the genocide,” and the protests at UCR and other campuses are intended to “condemn war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Messages taped to the large UCR sign underneath the Bell Tower included “Stop the U.S.-funded Genocide” “End the Occupation Now” and “Ceasefire Now!”

Estimates on the number of campuses where anti-war movements have surfaced over the last month vary, but according to the nonprofit National Students for Justice in Palestine, “solidarity encampments” numbered just over 70 as of May 1.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the International Committee of Red Cross-affiliated Palestine Red Crescent Society, nearly 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza — over 14,500 of them children — since the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas incursion into Israel, culminating in the IDF’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The number of injuries is in excess of 77,000, according to published reports.

Israel’s official casualty rate for the duration of hostilities is 8,730, of which just over 1,000 have been fatalities.

Along with universities, hospitals, refugee camps and residential complexes in Gaza have been targeted, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, according to reports from the region.

Human Rights Watch has alleged Israel “is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip,” and according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the humanitarian crisis caused by the bombardments on the Strip’s infrastructure has resulted in almost 500,000 “displaced persons” requiring shelter and other assistance.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday that of the 97 reporters killed in hostilities since early October, 92 have been Palestinian. Others have been assaulted, injured and arrested.

The CPJ said the current “war … has led to the deadliest period for journalists since we began gathering data in 1992.”

Aid workers have also been killed. The United Nations has estimated the number at 220, including seven World Central Kitchen volunteers whose vehicle took a direct hit on April 1 during an IDF drone strike on a convoy.

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The Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. on Tuesday and released a guidebook pointing to laws it deems discriminatory in each state, along with “know your rights” information and resources to help people relocate to states with stronger LGBTQ+ protections.

Sounding the alarm about the current political climate, the nation’s largest organization devoted to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans said travel advisories aren’t enough to help people already living in states where lawmakers have targeted LGBTQ+ people.

“We need champions right now,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in an interview with The Associated Press. President Joe Biden and other LGBTQ+ rights supporters with decision-making authorities, she said, need to be more than just allies.

The declaration is a call to action for “people in power at every level” of government and the business community, she said, urging them to fight for LGBTQ+ rights with the same fervor as they’ve fought for abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.

“When Dobbs fell, you saw a federal response to deal with the abortion crisis that we’re in,” Robinson said. “We are in a crisis of even greater scale to the health and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community, and we need that same sort of response.”

Just a few days into Pride Month, the campaign said it’s taking action in response to an “unprecedented and dangerous” spike in discriminatory legislation sweeping state houses this year, with more than 525 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced and more than 70 signed into law so far in 2023 — more than double last year’s number.

A recent Associated Press analysis found that many bills seeking to ban or restrict gender-affirming health care for transgender youth, who have been the primary targets of state legislation this year, sprang not from grassroots or constituent demand, but from the pens of a few powerful conservative interest groups.

The HRC guidebook, meanwhile, provides information about filing complaints for civil rights violations and points to resources for financing moves and finding employment, particularly in the 17 states with a trifecta of Democratic leadership in both legislative chambers and the governor’s office.

“The amount of calls I get every day from parents asking how they can move to another state because they’d rather mourn their home than their child is real,” Robinson said. “This is a different level of urgency and demanded a different level of response.”

The emergency declaration is the first in the 43-year history of the HRC, which encompasses a foundation focusing on research, advocacy and education, national and state lobbying campaigns and a political action committee that supports and opposes candidates for office. It comes as Republican-dominated legislatures around the country have restricted various aspects of transgender existence, from pronoun usage and bathroom access to medical care and more.

Louisiana is poised to become the latest state to enact new restrictions, after the veto-proof GOP-controlled Legislature on Tuesday sent a package to the governor that includes a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Lawmakers also overwhelming passed a bill outlining pronoun usage for students and another that would broadly ban K-12 public school employees from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom. The legislation is similar to the Florida law critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”

As many LGBTQ+ Americans are celebrating their identities this month against the backdrop of a dizzying array of new restrictions, some trans people and their families are scrambling to flee their home states.

For Debi Jackson, the mother of a trans child in Kansas City, Missouri, a recently rolled back emergency rule from the Republican attorney general, which would have restricted gender-affirming care for minors and some adults, pushed the family to its breaking point.

“My kiddo has decided that they’ve had enough of having to think every single day about what the government is going to do to torment them next,” said Jackson, 49.

Her child, 16-year-old Avery, gained national notoriety in 2017 when they became the first trans person to grace the cover of National Geographic magazine at age 9. Jackson, who has since become an outspoken advocate for her child and others in the region, said her family had once pledged to stay in the state and keep fighting.

“Because we are so visible, we kind of worried, if we pack up and go, what message does that send other people, and would it seem like we were leaving them behind?” she said. “But moving doesn’t mean we’re giving up or throwing in the towel. If anything, it demonstrates just how dire this crisis has become.”

An increasing number of trans people this year have suddenly found themselves without access to the medical care many credit as life-saving. Some are turning to often-dangerous “do-it-yourself” hormone treatments to avoid involuntarily reversing their physical transitions.

And as Pride Month festivities kick off this week, organizers are beefing up security amid threatened protests by some extremist groups. A mass shooting last fall inside a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs left many LGBTQ+ community members feeling especially vulnerable.

___

Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) — California’s San Luis Obispo County Jail violated the constitutional rights of incarcerated people by failing to provide adequate medical and mental health care and subjecting some inmates to excessive uses of force, according to a federal investigation.

A report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that “there is reason to believe that the practices at the jail violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments of the Constitution, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).”

The probe that began in 2018 found that inmates with mental health disabilities faced restrictive housing conditions and were denied access to services, programs and activities.

The Sal Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment. Spokesman Tony Cipolla told the San Luis Obispo Tribune that the agency will release a statement about the Justice Department’s findings later Tuesday.

The Department of Justice said it has provided the jail with its findings, along with the minimum remedial measures necessary to address them.

“Our Constitution guarantees that all people held in jails and prisons across our country are treated humanely, and that includes providing access to necessary medical and mental health care,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

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At a press conference before a speech to the Medical Committee for Human Rights in 1966, two years before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. noted, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane because it often results in physical death.”

King’s words come back to haunt us as the death statistics from COVID-19 roll in from every corner of the United States bearing the bad news.

According to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzed by The New York Times, African Americans and Latinos are three times more likely to become infected with the virus than white people. They are nearly twice as likely to die. Those statistics are grim markers of a disease that has hit America’s populations of color particularly hard.

What do those dismal numbers and the gaping health disparities they lay bare say about the refusal to expand Medicaid in some states, and the imposition of barriers that make expansion almost meaningless in others? Why are states continuing to turn down federal dollars to expand health care access during this time of historic need? Answers to those questions can help frame journalistic coverage as states prepare for new legislative sessions, where expansion will surely be on the agenda.

Recall that the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, expanded Medicaid to Americans with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level of $17,240 for a two-person family. But a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision made expansion optional. Legislatures in states that have not expanded, mostly in the South and Midwest, have refused to extend coverage to some of their poorest residents. Some 4.8 million people are in the so-called coverage gap: Their incomes are below the poverty level, and they are left out of the ACA because the law envisioned they’d be covered under the Medicaid expansion. They are too poor to buy commercial coverage and in many cases have too much money to qualify for regular Medicaid programs in their states because eligibility limits are so low.

I rang up Camara Phyllis Jones, a physician, epidemiologist, past president of the American Public Health Association, and recently a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Where does the health care that King worried about so long ago fit into America’s new reckoning with its racist past?

Before she even began to discuss health insurance, Jones noted that many people of color are working in jobs that have exposed them more to the coronavirus and left them less protected. Think: workers in meatpacking plants or bus drivers, not program analysts or accountants who can work from home. When people of color do become infected, Jones said, they are more likely to die because they are more burdened by chronic diseases often brought on by poor diets, less access to healthy foods, and polluted environments. Compounding those burdens are stringent Medicaid rules, including work and reporting requirements, even in states that have expanded the program. These rules make access to medical care difficult to obtain.

“All these factors have the root cause of racism,” Jones explained. She doesn’t think the infection rate or the death rate are primarily health issues. “They are based in racism and how different populations are valued, and perhaps a wrong idea of what populations use Medicaid,” she said.

Health equity in a state, she said, means valuing all individuals equally, recognizing and redefining historical injustices, and prioritizing resources according to need. That framework, or lack of it, helps explain why so many states have yet to expand Medicaid. It illuminates why three states – Idaho, Utah and Nebraska — whose voters approved expansion through ballot initiatives, and other states that have expanded, have imposed punitive or harsh requirements, such as compelling recipients to report periodically on efforts to find work or do hours of community service as a condition for retaining health insurance.

These are restrictions that Americans insured through their jobs or through the Affordable Care Act do not have to meet. The country has created a two-tired health insurance system based on racism.

Put another way, opposition to Medicaid expansion “is an ideological opposition, not a fact-based opposition to the ACA,” says Joan Alker who heads the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University’s School of Public Policy. “It’s tied up with a hatred of the ACA, which was President Obama’s signature achievement.” Alker points out that some 400 studies show Medicaid expansion reduces deaths. “I’m not sure what more evidence anyone can provide.”

To see how this opposition leaves people in poorer health and more vulnerable to the effects of the current pandemic and future calamities, I looked at two states, Mississippi and Nebraska. In Mississippi, which has not expanded its Medicaid program, 13% of uninsured residents are white, 16% are African American, and 30% are Hispanic.

In Nebraska, where 90,000 residents have been uninsured, the legislature has refused six times to expand Medicaid. Residents are awaiting implementation of an expansion voters approved two years ago, but state bureaucrats have been slow to begin the program, now scheduled to start in October.

In Mississippi, health department statistics show that as of July 21, African Americans accounted for about 52% of deaths from COVID-19, though they make up about 38% of the population.

“A poor food environment and lack of health care make the South a really vulnerable place,” says Dr. Anne Cafer, an assistant professor or sociology at the University of Mississippi. “COVID has brought this out in a way we haven’t seen before. It has highlighted the fact that if we don’t improve access, we’ll have a higher percentage of the population that gets it.”

Cafer argues the nutritional deficits of COVID patients represent a drawn-out process that reveals the link between poor diets and diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. “COVID makes this process more immediate and brings it into sharper delineation.”

The solutions pose familiar challenges. How do you get more food in the food deserts of Mississippi communities, and how do you pay for the services such as dietitians and food counselors when so much of the population in need is uninsured? Poor diets lead to poor health, and poor health without medical treatment is disastrous. That linkage needs more exploration.

Roy Mitchell, who directs the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, told me, “Nobody has really talked about the underlying conditions of African Americans. To date there has not been an appreciable focus on health disparities and social determinants of health in Mississippi by policymakers.”

In Nebraska there hasn’t been much talk about that either, but there has been plenty of conversation about delaying implementation of Medicaid expansion the voters approved two years ago. Yet, says Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, who represents a part of Omaha in the state legislature, “Everything about this plan is obstructionist. I’m not able to find good intentions in the plan. I have a small amount of confidence it will start in October, and it goes against the will and intent of the voters.” She called the delay an “abuse of power” that has been happening since April 2019, when the state began to craft its program.

About 70% of the state population eligible for expansion coverage is working but gets no insurance from their employers, says Molly McCleery, a health attorney at Nebraska Appleseed. Yet the state’s expansion calls for onerous work requirements in the second year of the program. If they are not met, recipients receive lesser coverage “Some policymakers get it,” McCleery says. “They understand that if you want workers to be in good health, taking away their health care doesn’t lead to those results. Other policymakers believe they need increased responsibility for this population.” And that ties in with the racism, the unspoken barrier to expansion. In 2018, 41% of Medicaid participants in Nebraska were white, 20% were black, and 30% were Hispanic.

Nebraska has designated two levels of coverage with different benefit packages. Under the basic plan, Nebraskans will receive basic Medicaid benefits, excluding such important coverage as dental and vision services and over-the-counter drugs.

As prime members, recipient gets the full benefit package if they satisfy seven requirements that would be unthinkable to most Americans with employer or Affordable Care Act health insurance. These include not missing three or more doctor appointments in a six-month period, selecting a primary care doctor, notifying the state within 10 days if there’s a change in status, and maintaining commercial health insurance, if available.

The state is also imposing work requirements under the waiver in the second year of the expansion, which present barriers that other insured Nebraskans do not have to hurdle. Medicaid recipients must work or volunteer for a public charity for at least 80 hours a month; enroll at least half time in an educational program; be a qualified caregiver or a foster parent; participate in certain government programs; or engage in certain job search activities for at least 20 hours per week. These requirements can be considered onerous in the extreme, given that most of the eligible population is already employed.

“Our approach better achieves the purpose of the Medicaid program by incentivizing positive activities that will improve health outcomes and encourage life successes for participants,” the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release.

Other states that have expanded have imposed similar work requirements, giving them an easy way to kick people off the rolls if someone fails to comply. The waiver in Utah, for example, requires those covered under the state’s expansion to conduct 48 job searches within the first three months of enrollment — an impossibility for all but the most dogged researcher. That requirement has been suspended because of the pandemic.

Work requirements in other states that have expanded Medicaid are tied up in the courts.

Nebraska estimates one-third of the people enrolled in the Medicaid expansion would not receive the full prime coverage and with it, coverage for dental, vision and over-the-counter drugs, which Medicaid policymakers seem to regard as inconsequential health care services. Amy Behnke, chief executive officer of the Health Center Association of Nebraska, told me that the seven federally qualified health centers in her association say dental care is a huge need. At one center in Gering, Nebraska, which serves 17 western and less populated counties, doctors see more patients for dental problems than for medical issues.

Jones argues that the way Medicaid expansion plays out in predominantly white states like Nebraska is also a function of racism. “The plurality of poor groups are white folks, but the idea politicians hold is that programs benefit people of color, and that’s why there’s not widespread support for them.”

Veteran health care journalist Trudy Lieberman is a contributing editor at the Center for Health Journalism Digital and a regular contributor to the Remaking Health Care column.

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An attorney for two people accused of being involved in a reported assault on a Black man at a southern Indiana lake said Monday his clients are victims of a “smear campaign” and a “rush to judgment.”

Vauhxx Booker, a local civil rights activist and member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission, said five white men pinned him against a tree, shouted racial slurs and one of them threatened to “get a noose” at Monroe Lake near Bloomington over Independence Day weekend.

But David Hennessy, a criminal defense attorney for Sean Purdy and Caroline McCord — two of the people accused of being involved — said Booker has been “putting forth a false narrative” about what happened.

“Mr. Booker was the instigator and the agitator,” Hennessy said at a press conference in downtown Indianapolis.

Neither Booker nor his attorney, Katherine Liell, was present at the news conference. In a statement released Monday evening, they maintained that Booker is a “victim of an attempted lynching and violent prejudice fueled attack.”

“Mr. Booker did not instigate this encounter; he did not provoke anyone to hold him against his will. He did not yell or shout or lose his temper,” the statement said. “This is what repeatedly happens. The victim gets blamed and shamed. He gets re-victimized. Vauhxx Booker is the victim. Black people across the nation have been the victims.”

Purdy and McCord claim, according to their lawyers, that Booker was on private property. Hennessy said that after they informed Booker of the property line, his clients thought the situation was resolved. Hennessy contends that hours later, Booker again approached Purdy, McCord and a group of others. They say Booker threatened them, claiming to be a county commissioner. That’s when Booker “jabbed a finger” in McCord’s face and proceeded to punch Purdy three times, Hennessy said.

“If you go on a neighbor’s property and start punching people, you can be restrained. And (Booker) ended up against a tree,” Hennessy said, arguing that Booker was not attacked. “No talk of a noose, no talk of a rope, no talk of a lynching. No white power.”

Hennessy said neither Purdy nor McCord heard or said “get a noose,” but that “some racially insensitive stuff” was said by people known to them. When asked, Hennessy said his clients know the people and condemn the language used.

“There is a grand awakening regarding racial injustice happening in all of our communities. This is long overdue. It is deplorable that a person would be targeted because of his or her race,” Hennessy said. “It is equally deplorable for a person to use his race as a weapon and to arouse public passion over a false allegation.”

Booker has said he was pinned to a tree at the lake just south of Booker’s hometown of Bloomington and that the group of five men accused him of trespassing on private property. After he tried to apologize, he said the situation got physical. Booker said the men threatened to break his arms and said, “get a noose,” while telling his friends to leave the area. Booker also said one of the men had a hat with a Confederate flag on it and that the men made statements about “white power.”

Much of the assault that followed was captured on cellphone video by people Booker had met up with that day. Booker said he suffered a minor concussion, cuts, bruises and had patches of his hair pulled out.

Hennessy said there is more video that the public has not seen that will provide proper context but that neither he nor his clients possess the footage.

Purdy and McCord were at the news conference but did not speak. Their lawyers said they are cooperating with law enforcement.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which responded to the reported assault, is still investigating what happened, officials said Monday. The FBI confirmed it also is still investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.

Casey Smith – AP

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Today, persecution watchdog organization Open Doors announced it has expanded its global tracking of violent acts against Christians— as reported in its 2020 World Watch List—to include six new categories including abductions, rape/sexual harassment, forced marriages, physical/mental abuse, and attacks on personal property and Christian businesses.

“As we seek to better understand the dangers Christians face worldwide, it is important to track the difference types of violent acts being committed against our brothers and sisters. As always, the results are horrifying, and we hope that bringing light to these atrocities will urge world and local leaders to action,” said David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA.

Among the most shocking violence-related data disclosed during Open Doors’ annual World Watch List press conference today was a report citing that more than 9,000 churches and Christian buildings were attacked in 51 countries in 2019; more than 5,500 of those attacks took place in China. This number represents more than a 1000 percent increase since 2018.

Notable violence numbers from 2019:
2,983 Christians were killed for their faith
8,537 Christians were raped or sexually harassed for their faith
9,488 Churches or Christian buildings were attacked
3,711 Christians were unjustly arrested or imprisoned
1,052 Christians were abducted for faith-related reasons
3,315 Christian homes were attacked, burned or destroyed

While attacks of buildings and churches rose, Christians killed for faith-related reasons dropped from approximately 4,300 in 2019 to some 2,900 in 2020. The reason for this decrease was primarily found in Nigeria, as militant Fulani herdsmen shifted focus from raiding homesteads and communities to kidnappings and roadblocks. An increase was seen in the number of Christians detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and/or imprisoned—rising from 3,150 in 2019 to some 3,700 in 2020.

The data found that a startling 14,645 Christians were physically or mentally abused, with the majority of that activity occurring in India, China and sub-Saharan African countries where a myriad of jihadist groups aim to create instability. At least 8,500 Christians were raped or sexually abused for reasons related to their faith, a number that should be regarded as the tip of the iceberg, since most sexual harassment happens behind closed doors and is, therefore, more difficult to accurately track.

Every day …
8 Christians are killed for their faith.
23 Christians are raped or sexually harassed
25 Churches are targeted and attacked
10 Christians are unjustly arrested or imprisoned for their faith
2020 World Watch List Top 10

• 1. North Korea
• 2. Afghanistan
• 3. Somalia
• 4. Libya
• 5. Pakistan
• 6. Eritrea
• 7. Sudan
• 8. Yemen
• 9. Iran
• 10. India

Persecution at a Glance

Christians remain one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world. While persecution of Christians takes many forms, it is defined as any hostility experienced as a result of identification with Christ. Christians throughout the world continue to risk imprisonment, loss of home and assets, torture, rape, and even death as a result of their faith.

Methodology

The Open Doors World Watch List is the only comprehensive, annual survey of the state of religious liberty for Christians around the world. From Nov. 1, 2018 to Oct. 31, 2019, researchers measured the degree of freedom a Christian has to live out his or her faith in five spheres of life—private, family, community, national and church, plus a sixth category measuring the degree of violence. Points are given for each incident of persecution, and the total points provide the ranking for each country. For more information on the methodology of the Open Doors World Watch List, please visit OpenDoorsUSA.org.

About Open Doors USA

For more than 60 years, Open Doors USA has worked in the world’s most oppressive and restrictive countries for Christians. Open Doors works to equip and encourage Christians living in dangerous circumstances with the threat of persecution and equips the Western church to advocate for the persecuted. Christians are one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world and are oppressed in at least 60 countries. For more information, visit OpenDoorsUSA.org.

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