Scrubbed State Department country reports degrade country-conditions evidence for LGBTQ asylum claims

The 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released in redesigned form in 2025, removed the sections documenting abuses against LGBTQ+ people (along with sections on discrimination against women, gender-based violence, and other categories). Country reports are standard country-conditions evidence in asylum adjudication; their truncation removes State Department corroboration that transgender applicants previously cited to establish persecution in their home countries, shifting the evidentiary burden to private documentation. In November 2025 the Department further announced future reports would recast DEI policies and migration management as "human rights infringements." (Report content changes: see sections 6, 8, 12.)