Trans-Pacific View | Diplomacy

The US Hasn’t Designated Violators of International Religious Freedom Since 2023

In its latest report, USCIRF has urged the Trump administration to finally make designations of egregious violators of religious freedoms.

For more than a quarter-century, American foreign policy regarding international religious freedom has been generated through a thoughtful series of reports and designations followed by either punitive sanctions or specific waivers. This system has, in some ways, stalled. 

Through its annual reports, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommends certain states for designation as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs). USCIRF, an independent, bipartisan federal body that monitors the status of freedom of religion abroad in order to make policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state, and Congress, has continued to do the job the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) mandated it to do.

Commissioner Mohamed Elsanousi told The Diplomat following USCIRF’s report launch on Capitol Hill on March 4, that the countries recommended for CPC designation are states where “we see the violation of religious freedom is systematic, it’s ongoing, it’s egregious and it is worsening.”

In her remarks during the launch , Commissioner Rachel Laser noted that, “The Trump administration in its first year followed the previous Biden administration in failing to make new… designations, with the notable exception of Nigeria.

“We’re now well over two years since the last designations were made in late 2023, and they’re expired,” she added.

In its March 2026 annual report, USCIRF recommended a number of Asian countries for designation as CPCs: Afghanistan, China, India, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. Additionally, USCIRF recommends including on the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL) Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, and Uzbekistan.

(For the full list, including entities also designated, please refer to USCIRF’s full report)

The IRFA provides a menu of punitive options which administrations can then pursue to pressure designated countries. Administrations can also opt to waive sanctions, despite designation. Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, for example, have been designated CPCs since 2016 and 2014, respectively, but have always been granted waivers, with the State Department offering only the barest of explanations: “the important national interest of the United States.” 

Typically, the U.S. State Department announces its designations some time after USCIRF’s recommendations are made and then releases its own annual International Religious Freedom (IRF) report, also mandated under IRFA. But the State Department hasn’t designated CPCs since December 2023, when the Biden administration announced its designations that year. The Biden State Department then released its IRF covering 2023 in June 2024, missing the statutory deadline of May 1. 

The Biden administration did not make new designations before leaving office in January 2025.

Aside from a presidential destination of Nigeria as a CPC in October 2025, the Trump administration has also failed to made designations. The State Department has not released an IRF report since the June 2024 version, covering conditions in 2023.

One reason is arguably the State Department’s spring 2025 reorganization and the Trump administration’s downsizing of the U.S. government more broadly. At State, the Office for International Religious Freedom was moved under the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL). USCIRF noted in its latest report that this actually reversed the first Trump administration’s moving of the office out from under the bureau – at the time argued to be a promotion of the issue’s relevance.

USCIRF further commented in its report that, “While some have argued that merging the IRF Office into DRL could diminish IRF advocacy, the administration maintained it would strengthen efforts by placing IRF and countering antisemitism at the center of human rights diplomacy.”

Other Trump administration decisions undercut that argument, with considerable engagements with a number of countries previously designated as CPCs or added to the SWL without mention of religious freedom issues. For example, in November 2025 the White House hosted all five Central Asian presidents – all five Central Asian states are recommended for with CPC designation or SWL inclusion – and yet not a word was mentioned, publicly, regarding religious freedoms. 

Meanwhile, a number of domestic U.S. policies have chipped away at previously offered protections. The suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program serves to stress systems put in place to provide pathways out for the persecuted. When the Trump administration authorized the admissions of up to 7,500 refugees to the United States in 2026, via an October 2025 presidential determination, it was a historically low quota. Furthermore, the administration specified that admissions “shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa…”

USCIRF has previously issued reports on the U.S. government’s treatment of asylum seekers, documenting the “many problems that successive administrations have failed to address.” But the Trump Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s expanded use of expedited removal – through which DHS quickly deports individuals, often without due consideration – has serious implications for those fleeing religious persecution. For example, according to USCIRF, “at least 11 Iranian Christian converts fleeing religious persecution in Iran entered the United States in February [2025] and were summarily deported to Panama.” Members of the group requested asylum but were not granted what’s called a “credible fear” interview. 

Similarly, the curtailment of humanitarian parole and the sunsetting of Temporary Protected Status for citizens of countries like Afghanistan and Myanmar also put individuals fleeing religious persecution at greater risk. Other immigration-related restrictions – such as the June 2025 presidential proclamation suspending the entry of certain foreign nationals based largely on visa overstay rates – targeted a number of countries included in the CPC recommendation list, such as Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Turkmenistan.

It’s perhaps reflective of this particular moment in U.S. politics that although Trump administration officials have made considerable statements about the importance of religious freedom – including Vice President J.D. Vance at the February 2026 International Religious Freedom Summit – the administration’s policies writ large have ignored the international salience of the issue, and its function in U.S. foreign policy as a moral core.

Also reflective of this particular moment in time was the attendance, or lack thereof, by members of Congress at USCIRF’s report launch. With the Trump administration launching an attack on Iran last weekend, and various other serious issues before the Congress, it was not necessarily surprising that members were not able to attend. Whereas last year’s USCIRF report launch featured remarks from two senators and eight representatives, this year only Representative Brad Sherman (D, CA-32) managed to take the microphone.

“There is nothing more important to American values than freedom of religion,” Sherman said. “It is in the first amendment for a reason and we need a foreign policy that reflects out values as a nation.”

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For more than a quarter-century, American foreign policy regarding international religious freedom has been generated through a thoughtful series of reports and designations followed by either punitive sanctions or specific waivers. This system has, in some ways, stalled. 

Through its annual reports, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommends certain states for designation as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs). USCIRF, an independent, bipartisan federal body that monitors the status of freedom of religion abroad in order to make policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state, and Congress, has continued to do the job the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) mandated it to do.

Commissioner Mohamed Elsanousi told The Diplomat following USCIRF’s report launch on Capitol Hill on March 4, that the countries recommended for CPC designation are states where “we see the violation of religious freedom is systematic, it’s ongoing, it’s egregious and it is worsening.”

In her remarks during the launch , Commissioner Rachel Laser noted that, “The Trump administration in its first year followed the previous Biden administration in failing to make new… designations, with the notable exception of Nigeria.

“We’re now well over two years since the last designations were made in late 2023, and they’re expired,” she added.

In its March 2026 annual report, USCIRF recommended a number of Asian countries for designation as CPCs: Afghanistan, China, India, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. Additionally, USCIRF recommends including on the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL) Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, and Uzbekistan.

(For the full list, including entities also designated, please refer to USCIRF’s full report)

The IRFA provides a menu of punitive options which administrations can then pursue to pressure designated countries. Administrations can also opt to waive sanctions, despite designation. Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, for example, have been designated CPCs since 2016 and 2014, respectively, but have always been granted waivers, with the State Department offering only the barest of explanations: “the important national interest of the United States.” 

Typically, the U.S. State Department announces its designations some time after USCIRF’s recommendations are made and then releases its own annual International Religious Freedom (IRF) report, also mandated under IRFA. But the State Department hasn’t designated CPCs since December 2023, when the Biden administration announced its designations that year. The Biden State Department then released its IRF covering 2023 in June 2024, missing the statutory deadline of May 1. 

The Biden administration did not make new designations before leaving office in January 2025.

Aside from a presidential destination of Nigeria as a CPC in October 2025, the Trump administration has also failed to made designations. The State Department has not released an IRF report since the June 2024 version, covering conditions in 2023.

One reason is arguably the State Department’s spring 2025 reorganization and the Trump administration’s downsizing of the U.S. government more broadly. At State, the Office for International Religious Freedom was moved under the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL). USCIRF noted in its latest report that this actually reversed the first Trump administration’s moving of the office out from under the bureau – at the time argued to be a promotion of the issue’s relevance.

USCIRF further commented in its report that, “While some have argued that merging the IRF Office into DRL could diminish IRF advocacy, the administration maintained it would strengthen efforts by placing IRF and countering antisemitism at the center of human rights diplomacy.”

Other Trump administration decisions undercut that argument, with considerable engagements with a number of countries previously designated as CPCs or added to the SWL without mention of religious freedom issues. For example, in November 2025 the White House hosted all five Central Asian presidents – all five Central Asian states are recommended for with CPC designation or SWL inclusion – and yet not a word was mentioned, publicly, regarding religious freedoms. 

Meanwhile, a number of domestic U.S. policies have chipped away at previously offered protections. The suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program serves to stress systems put in place to provide pathways out for the persecuted. When the Trump administration authorized the admissions of up to 7,500 refugees to the United States in 2026, via an October 2025 presidential determination, it was a historically low quota. Furthermore, the administration specified that admissions “shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa…”

USCIRF has previously issued reports on the U.S. government’s treatment of asylum seekers, documenting the “many problems that successive administrations have failed to address.” But the Trump Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s expanded use of expedited removal – through which DHS quickly deports individuals, often without due consideration – has serious implications for those fleeing religious persecution. For example, according to USCIRF, “at least 11 Iranian Christian converts fleeing religious persecution in Iran entered the United States in February [2025] and were summarily deported to Panama.” Members of the group requested asylum but were not granted what’s called a “credible fear” interview. 

Similarly, the curtailment of humanitarian parole and the sunsetting of Temporary Protected Status for citizens of countries like Afghanistan and Myanmar also put individuals fleeing religious persecution at greater risk. Other immigration-related restrictions – such as the June 2025 presidential proclamation suspending the entry of certain foreign nationals based largely on visa overstay rates – targeted a number of countries included in the CPC recommendation list, such as Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Turkmenistan.

It’s perhaps reflective of this particular moment in U.S. politics that although Trump administration officials have made considerable statements about the importance of religious freedom – including Vice President J.D. Vance at the February 2026 International Religious Freedom Summit – the administration’s policies writ large have ignored the international salience of the issue, and its function in U.S. foreign policy as a moral core.

Also reflective of this particular moment in time was the attendance, or lack thereof, by members of Congress at USCIRF’s report launch. With the Trump administration launching an attack on Iran last weekend, and various other serious issues before the Congress, it was not necessarily surprising that members were not able to attend. Whereas last year’s USCIRF report launch featured remarks from two senators and eight representatives, this year only Representative Brad Sherman (D, CA-32) managed to take the microphone.

“There is nothing more important to American values than freedom of religion,” Sherman said. “It is in the first amendment for a reason and we need a foreign policy that reflects out values as a nation.”

Catherine Putz is managing editor of The Diplomat.

China religious freedom

India religious freedom

Indonesia religious freedom

Kazakhstan religious freedom

Kyrgyzstan religious freedom

Malaysia religious freedom

religious freedom in Central Asia

Religious freedom in Pakistan

religious freedom in Uzbekistan

Religious freedom Southeast Asia

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)

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