Extremist Groups

New Report Documents 1,371 

Extremist Groups in U.S.

State-by-State List Includes Interactive Map

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (SPLC) — 5/31/2025 — The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released its annual Year in Hate & Extremism report on May 22, which chronicles trends in hard-right activity, exposes the players who are driving extremism and equips communities with data and tools to prevent radicalization.

    

Interactive SPLC Hate Map

    The new report documents 1,371 hate and antigovernment extremist groups in the United States in 2024 and traces their growing influence on local, state and national government. As these groups tighten their grip on the U.S. political system, the report tracks how their actions are dividing and demoralizing people across the country while dismantling democracy from within.

    “After years of courting politicians and chasing power, hard-right groups are now fully infiltrating our politics andenactingtheir dangerous ideology into law,” said Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the SPLC. “Extremists at all levels of government are using cruelty, chaos and constant attacks on communities and our democracy to make us feel powerless. We cannot surrender to fear. It is up to all of us to organize against the forces of hate and tyranny. This report offers data that is essential to understanding the landscape of hate and helping communities fight for the multiracial, inclusive democracy we deserve.”

    Throughout 2024, hard-right groups used state legislatures and school boards — particularly in the South — as battlegrounds to target Black and Brown communities, women, immigrants, Jewish people, Muslim people, Indigenous communities and LGBTQ+ people. Many of the extremist actors focused on whitewashing American history through book bans and changes to curriculum, pushing for companies to eliminate all DEI initiatives, and threatening violence against election workers. Now, as the Trump administration welcomes extremist ideology into its ranks, these actors are taking their model of success to the nation’s highest offices.

    The report also finds a growing wave of white nationalism that is motivated by theocratic beliefs and false claims of “Christian persecution” and “white genocide.” This movement seeks to dominate social, cultural and political life in the United States and craft a Christian, fascist state in its own image.

    To better mobilize against hate and extremism, it is imperative that we not only understand the power and influence of these groups, but also their recruitment strategies. That’s why the report highlights the tactics hard-right groups use to attract, influence and motivate their members. For example, the growing influence of the most extreme corners of the manosphere — a collection of blogs, forums and websites, where members mobilize around misogyny and anti-feminism — has enabled male supremacists to capture the attention of young people, often using edgy “humor” to degrade women and trans people.

    “While 2024 has been a tough year for our democracy and for communities targeted by hate and conspiracies, we didn’t get here by accident. We know that these groups build their power by threatening violence, capturing political parties and government, and infesting the mainstream discourse with conspiracy theories,” said Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “By exposing the players, tactics and code words of the hard right, we hope to dismantle their mythology and inspire people to fight back.”

    A state-by-state list of hate and antigovernment extremist groups and an interactive map is available HERE.

    The sections in this report include:

• The false fear of ‘White Genocide’
• From screens to schools: Male supremacy’s impact and prevention tactics
• Anti-DEI efforts and the attempted whitewashing of America
• A strategic application of chaos
• Targeting democracy: Local militias and national sovereign citizens
• Decline of the neo-Confederates
• Turning Point USA: A case study of the hard right in 2024
• Understanding Telegram’s toxic recommendations

    “Now is not the time to remain silent or compromise our shared values. It is imperative to call on organizations, institutions, and businesses to stay firm in their commitment to justice, equity and inclusion and use their resources to hold the line against hate and discrimination,” Huang said.

    SPLC offers these policy recommendations as part of the larger effort to counter hate and extremism:

• Hold executive power accountable;
• Promote inclusive responses to hate and extremism;
• Maintain civil rights and hate crimes as top priorities and make hate crime reporting mandatory;
• Prevent political violence;
• Build community resilience and center victims;
• Support diversity, equity, include, and accessibility (DEIA) programs;
• Teach accurate history and critical thinking skills;
• Promote online safety and hold tech and social media companies accountable.

    To read the report in its entirety, visit splcenter.org.

    About the Southern Poverty Law Center

    The Southern Poverty Law Center is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people. For more information, visit www.splcenter.org.

Dividing Lines

Pentagon-sponsored Christian Worship

Service Called An Egregious  

Abuse of Power

FFRF: Sectarian Takeover at Pentagon Must Be Stopped

    (FFRF) -- 5/27/25 -- The Freedom From Religion Foundation is renewing its urgent call to the Department of Defense and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to halt sectarian religious services in official Pentagon spaces, following troubling details about the inaugural event.

    Despite advance warnings from FFRF about the clear constitutional violations such an event would pose, Hegseth and the Pentagon invited all staff to attend a Pentagon-sponsored Christian worship service on government property during official working hours. The event, reportedly attended by hundreds of Department of Defense employees and broadcast across military channels, was organized by Hegseth and featured his personal pastor, Brooks Potteiger — a minister known for promoting Christian nationalism and political partisanship — who delivered a sermon declaring President Trump a “divinely appointed” leader.

    Potteiger opened the service by thanking God for Trump and other officials who were “sovereignly appointed,” praising Trump for bringing “stability and moral clarity to our lands.” The service included sectarian preaching, worship songs, bible readings, and the Lord’s Prayer — all conducted from the Pentagon’s main auditorium, a symbolically significant site of U.S. government power.

    Hegseth himself offered a prayer to “King Jesus,” stating: “We come as sinners saved only by that grace, seeking your providence in our lives and in our nation. Lord God, we ask for the wisdom to see what is right and in each and every day, in each and every circumstance, the courage to do what is right in obedience to your will. It is in the name of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray. And all God’s people say amen.”

    Potteiger closed the service by calling on God to spread the influence of the prayer meeting beyond the Pentagon: “May this become a place where Christians come together to do just this, and we see you move in power, not just through the Pentagon, but through our nation’s capital and down throughout this great nation.”

    FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor: “This was a desecration of the secular principles embodied in the Constitution Hegseth is tasked with upholding. The Founders threw the king out, and deliberately gave sovereignty not to a monarch or a divinity but to ‘We the People.’ Hegseth’s comments are an embarrassment and a disgrace to his office.”

    Hegseth has described the prayer event as the first of a planned monthly series — raising serious alarm that the Pentagon is now hosting an institutionalized Christian worship program sanctioned by top federal officials.

    “This is an egregious abuse of government power,” FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott said. “If the Pentagon, a command center of global military operations, can be converted into a venue for Christian worship and political messaging, then the wall between church and state is not just being breached, it’s under siege.”

    In response, FFRF has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all planning materials, internal communications, legal reviews, and records concerning the use of Pentagon resources for the event. The request also seeks clarity on whether personnel were pressured or incentivized to attend, whether attendance was recorded, and how the event was promoted internally.

    “This is a wake-up call,” Gaylor said. “Theocrats are embedding Christian nationalism into the highest levels of government — and if we don’t push back now, the damage to our democracy could be lasting.”

    FFRF is demanding that the Department of Defense immediately cancel any future “Secretary’s Prayer Meetings” and recommit to its constitutional obligation to religious neutrality. The Pentagon must represent all Americans — not function as a megachurch for one religion or political agenda.

    The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With more than 42,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights. For more information, visit ffrf.org. (original publication date: 5/22/25

Surveillance

Secret Use of Real-Time

Facial Recognition by Police 

Raises Serious Concerns

Network of face recognition surveillance cameras distinguishes city as the worst abuser of this technology in the nation

    NEW ORLEANS (ACLU)  — 5/19/2025 — The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Louisiana are raising urgent concerns following an investigation that shows the New Orleans Police Department has secretly used real-time face recognition technology to track and arrest residents without public oversight or City Council approval. This not only flouts local law, but endangers all of our civil liberties. This is the first known time an American police department has relied on live facial recognition technology cameras at scale, and is a radical and dangerous escalation of the power to surveil people as we go about our daily lives.

    According to The Washington Post, since 2023 the city has relied on face recognition-enabled surveillance cameras through the “Project NOLA” private camera network. These cameras scan every face that passes by and send real-time alerts directly to officers’ phones when they detect a purported match to someone on a secretive, privately maintained watchlist.
    The use of facial recognition technology by Project NOLA and New Orleans police raises serious concerns regarding misidentifications and the targeting of marginalized communities. Consider Randal Reid, for example. He was wrongfully arrested based on faulty Louisiana facial recognition technology, despite never having set foot in the state. The false match cost him his freedom, his dignity, and thousands of dollars in legal fees. That misidentification happened based on a still image run through a facial recognition search in an investigation; the Project NOLA real-time surveillance system supercharges the risks.
    “We cannot ignore the real possibility of this tool being weaponized against marginalized communities, especially immigrants, activists, and others whose only crime is speaking out or challenging government policies. These individuals could be added to Project NOLA's watchlist without the public’s knowledge, and with no accountability or transparency on the part of the police departments,” said Alanah Odoms, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. "Facial recognition technology poses a direct threat to the fundamental rights of every individual and has no place in our cities. We call on the New Orleans Police Department and the City of New Orleans to halt this program indefinitely and terminate all use of live-feed facial recognition technology. The ACLU of Louisiana will continue to fight the expansion of facial recognition systems and remain vigilant in defending the privacy rights of all Louisiana residents.”
    Key details revealed in the reporting include:

    Real-time tracking: More than 200 surveillance cameras across New Orleans, particularly around the French Quarter, are equipped with facial recognition software that automatically scans passersby and alerts police when someone on a “watch list” is detected.
    Privately run, publicly weaponized: The watch list is assembled by the head of Project NOLA and includes tens of thousands of faces scraped from police mugshot databases—without due process or any meaningful accuracy standards.
    Police use to justify stops and arrests: Alerts are sent directly to a phone app used by officers, enabling immediate stops and detentions based on unverified purported facial recognition matches.
    Searchable database: Project NOLA also has the capability to search stored video footage for a particular face or faces appearing in the past. So in other words, they could upload an image of someone’s face, and then search for all appearances of them across all the camera feeds over the last 30 days, thus retracing their movements, activities, and associations. Pervasive technological location tracking raises grave concerns under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.    

    No retention, no oversight: NOPD reportedly does not retain records about the alerts it receives and officers rarely record their reliance on the Project NOLA FRT results in investigative reports, raising serious questions about compliance with constitutional requirements to preserve and turn over evidence to people accused of crimes and to courts, thus undermining accountability in criminal prosecutions.

    Violates city law: When the New Orleans City Council lifted the city’s ban on face recognition and imposed guardrails in 2022, it maintained a ban on use of facial recognition technology as a surveillance tool. This system baldly circumvents that ban. The system also circumvents transparency and reporting requirements imposed by City Council. Officials never disclosed the program in mandated public reports.
    In 2021, the ACLU of Louisiana sued the Louisiana State Police for information about secretly deploying facial recognition technology, despite years of officials assuring the public it wasn’t in use. Time and again, officials claim these tools are only used responsibly, but history proves otherwise. After the Washington Post began investigating this time around, city officials acknowledged the program and said they had “paused” it and that they “are in discussions with the city council” to change the city’s facial recognition technology law to permit this pervasive monitoring.
    The ACLU is now urging the New Orleans City Council to launch a full investigation and reimpose a moratorium on facial recognition use until robust privacy protections, due process safeguards, and accountability measures are in place.
    “Until now, no American police department has been willing to risk the massive public blowback from using such a brazen face recognition surveillance system,” said Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “By adopting this system–in secret, without safeguards, and at tremendous threat to our privacy and security–the City of New Orleans has crossed a thick red line. This is the stuff of authoritarian surveillance states, and has no place in American policing.”

Tariff Politics

Mega Retailer Confirms Tariffs Will

Raise Prices for Americans

     (American Bridge) -- May 18, 2025 -- Walmart, the largest retailer in the country, called Trump’s tariffs “too high” and announced “higher tariffs will result in higher prices” at their stores beginning later this month. The retail giant confirmed that Trump’s high tariffs on major trading partners are raising the cost of electronics, toys, and food.

    Tariffs have already made mattresses, toys, strollers, and big-ticket purchases that many families need more expensive. An analysis from the Yale Budget Lab shows their chaotic policies will cost almost half a million American jobs and raise the cost of living for households by an average of $2,800, with the poorest Americans paying a disproportionate share of the costs.

    Trump’s chaos is hurting workers at major ports nationwide, leaving many dockworkers and truck drivers uncertain about their futures. Last week, California’s major ports faced 12 hours during which zero cargo ships left from one of America’s most important trading partners, which hasn’t happened since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down global trade.

    “Americans trusted Trump to bring prices down on his first day in office, but prices keep rising on his watch while he ignores struggling families and brags about soon flying in a $400 million plane,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Brandon Weathersby. “The future of Trump’s economy looks dire for American workers and their families. Jobs will be lost, and people will get priced out of buying the essentials they need. Instead of admitting defeat, he’s doubling down on a trade war he’s losing badly, and it’s everyday people paying the price for his failures.” (story originally published May 15/25

Asylum Rights

Court Ruling Considered Major

Win for Asylum Seekers

    WASHINGTON  (ACLU) — 5/9/25 —The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on May 9 issued a victory for the plaintiffs in Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, striking down key parts of a Biden administration rule severely restricting asylum. In a major win for asylum rights, the Court found that the rule’s limitation on asylum eligibility violates the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Court also ruled that the rule’s departure from longstanding policy requiring immigration officers to ask people if they fear persecution before deporting them is “arbitrary and capricious,” and would harm to people seeking asylum.

    The Biden-era rule, which was first announced in June 2024, barred people from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, unless they were able to obtain a scarce appointment via the government’s CBP One smartphone app, a process that was terminated on President Trump’s first day in office. Days after the rule was first announced, the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigrant Justice Center, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, Jenner & Block LLP, ACLU of the District of Columbia, and Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) filed a federal lawsuit challenging the rule on behalf of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center (Las Americas) and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES). Today’s ruling sets an important precedent for future efforts to restrict people’s right to seek asylum.

    In response to the Court’s ruling, immigrants’ rights groups issued the following comment:

    “Today's decision is a critical step in peeling back the illegal asylum restrictions at the border,” said Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Unfortunately, as a country we have forgotten the historic commitment we made after World War II to never turn our back on people fleeing persecution.”

    “For multiple years, courts have rejected policies that block access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, and we are grateful that today’s ruling follows that trend,” said Keren Zwick, Litigation Director at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “We also appreciate the recognition that asylum seekers require more than four hours to consult with the outside world before a life-altering interview and that immigrants cannot be expected to spontaneously shout out a fear without being given a chance to do so. We hope these aspects make it clear that procedural fairness is required in the U.S. legal system.”

    “Today's decision recognizes the Biden-era border rule was yet another unlawful attempt to deprive people fleeing persecution of eligibility for asylum,” said Melissa Crow, Director of Litigation at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). “As evidenced by our plaintiffs' experiences, the rule emboldened border officers to ignore explicit expressions of fear and to intimidate or mislead asylum seekers into giving up their claims for protection. Many people seeking safety were summarily deported to danger, and family members were separated despite having identical claims. This decision affirms that no president can rewrite our asylum laws by executive fiat."

    “This decision confirms what advocates have been saying for years: asylum seekers have a legal right to a meaningful opportunity to seek protection in this country. Four hours to find and then speak with an attorney, while in federal custody, is not the way to achieve a legitimate process,” said Jennifer Babaie, Director of Advocacy and Legal Services at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and New Mexico. “At Las Americas, we will not stop fighting until we do right by the countless individuals blocked from seeking safety at our borders.”

    “For the last year, the U.S. government has given border officials the freedom to ignore anyone’s viable claims of fear and to send them back to the legitimate harms from which they fled, endangering countless lives in the process. Today’s federal court ruling reaffirms what we’ve said time and again — that the bipartisan war on asylum has obstructed equitable access to fundamental human and legal rights in ways both arbitrary and capricious,” said Javier Hidalgo, Legal Director at RAICES. “This is a major step in righting some of the many wrongs inflicted upon people and families seeking safety in accordance with federal and international law.”