While serving as the Chief of Hate Crimes unit in the Manhattan DA’s office, Hannah Yu was given a hate crime case in which the victim was struck with an object. The perpetrator had shouted, “Go back to your country!” Soon after, her office received another case. Someone approached a complete stranger and said: “You don’t belong here. You should get deported.”
After more cases like these were reported in 2024, Yu recognized a growing trend. Amid the hate crimes reported in Manhattan was an increase in harsh rhetoric and threats toward whom the perpetrators perceived as immigrants in the United States. In response, starting in 2024, the Manhattan DA’s office began examining whether hate crimes under existing categories involved anti-immigrant elements and began tracking changes in this trend.
They found that while the overall number of hate crime prosecutions in Manhattan decreased slightly from 114 in 2023 to 101 in 2024, hate crimes targeting migrants increased. Formally defined as anti-national origin hate crimes, these crimes directly target migrants or those who are perceived to be migrants.
In 2024, 60% of the 10 anti-national origin hate crime cases prosecuted by the office specifically targeted perceived migrants. The number of anti-national origin hate crimes prosecuted by the office last year surged 900% compared to 2023, when there was just one anti-national origin case. As of Feb. 4, 2025, the office has already prosecuted three anti-national origin hate crimes, according to exclusive data provided to Documented by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Yu explained that while the office has begun tracking hate crimes against immigrants, “anti-migrant” is not a prosecutable hate crime category.
Yu explained that for a crime to be prosecuted as a hate crime, prosecutors must prove motive and that it was based on a protected class — such as race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, age, disability, or sexual orientation. Since immigration status is not a protected characteristic under New York law, it does not qualify as a hate crime. Hate crimes involving anti-immigrant rhetoric are typically classified under existing categories, according to Yu. For example, if a perpetrator assaults someone they believe to be Hispanic while expressing anti-immigrant rhetoric, the crime would be legally categorized as anti-Hispanic bias, though it may also be noted as “anti-migrant,” the office explained.
Yu cautioned, however, that limited historical data exists on the rise of anti-migrant crimes, as this tracking of crimes has only recently become more prominent amid the current political climate.
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The office said the results revealed incidents in Manhattan where people were targeted based on their actual or perceived immigration status. Yu said the office identifies hate crimes targeting immigrants through perpetrators’ statements, victim-targeting patterns, social media, and other evidence. For example, many of these cases, which were mostly in Manhattan, involved perpetrators often using derogatory language like “go back to your country” or deportation threats, which can indicate bias motivation, Yu explains.
She added that most of these hate crime cases targeting immigrants involve Latino victims, with some also targeting Asian and Black individuals.
Despite the slight decline in overall hate crimes in Manhattan, Yu warned that incidents remain at record-high levels. Of the 148 open hate crime cases currently handled by the DA’s office since District Attorney Alvin Bragg took office in 2022, the highest number involve anti-Semitic hate crimes (39 cases), followed by anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes (35 cases) and anti-Asian hate crimes (33 cases).
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Yu noted that world events often influence hate crime trends. The COVID-19 pandemic fueled anti-Asian hate, while anti-Semitic hate crimes surged after the retaliatory war waged by Israel following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. She believes that rising anti-immigrant rhetoric in political discourse and media may be fueling violence against migrants.
“The overarching theme is that hate doesn’t discriminate, and that hate is universal. If you hate a particular community because you think that they don’t belong here, you’re typically going to hate multiple communities,” said Yu. “Because once you feel that you belong or you’re superior to others, they’ll always find other communities that you feel don’t belong or are inferior to you.”
Vijah Ramjattan, executive director of the Mayor’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, called the rise in anti-migrant incidents troubling. “No one wears a sign saying ‘immigrant.’ We are all immigrants,” he said. “Bias and acts of hate come from various reasons and serve various purposes, but it is un-American, it is wrong, and it’s not how we should treat people who come to our country with respect and dignity.”
Citywide, hate crime complaints reported to the NYPD saw a slight 3% decrease, dropping from 669 in 2023 to 648 in 2024. Manhattan and Brooklyn accounted for over 70% of all hate crime complaints. While most boroughs saw a decline in hate crimes, Brooklyn was an exception, with 236 complaints in 2024 — a 12% increase from the previous year.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office has prosecuted four anti-immigrant hate crimes in the past three years — one from 2022, one from 2023, and two from 2024 — according to Oren Yaniv, the office’s director of communications. (Note: Different borough DAs have identified cases as anti-migrant or anti-immigrant hate crimes, with the terms sometimes used interchangeably when referring to hate crimes targeting perceived migrants or immigrants.) However, he said the sample size is too small to draw any conclusion about any clear trends.
These cases were identified based on statements allegedly made by defendants, Yaniv said. In one instance, two men reportedly shouted, “You f*ing Mexican, go back to your country!”** before assaulting the victim. In another case, the attackers yelled, “You illegal, get out of my country! You don’t know English!”
The Bronx District Attorney’s Office said it has not seen a notable increase in anti-migrant hate crimes. DA offices in Queens and Staten Island did not provide information on hate crimes targeting migrants.
Yu said underreporting, especially among immigrant communities, remains a persistent challenge. Many victims hesitate to engage with law enforcement due to fear, language barriers, cultural differences, or financial concerns.
“There’s a lot of fear about law enforcement,” Yu said. “There may be language or cultural barriers. There might be a financial burden in reporting.”
Sareve Lawson, deputy director for the prevention of hate crimes at the Manhattan DA’s office, said the office takes a community-based approach to addressing these issues. It conducts trainings at schools, universities, community centers, places of worship, and senior centers to educate the public on what constitutes a hate crime and how to report them.
Another challenge in prosecuting hate crimes is proving motive, Yaniv explained. Even if a victim appears to have been targeted because of their identity, prosecutors must provide evidence of bias, which isn’t always available.
“The mere use of hateful language is not enough,” Yaniv said. For example, if someone shouts a racial slur during a road rage incident that began with a fender bender, prosecutors would need to prove that racial animus, not the traffic dispute, was the reason for the attack.
Yaniv said useful evidence in hate crime investigations can include: statements made by the defendant before or after the crime; symbols used during the crime (e.g., a swastika); social media posts or other indicators of bias. He also emphasized that hate crimes are not stand-alone crimes, they are an enhancement to certain specified offenses, and function to increase the potential sentence of that underlying crime. Even when hate crime charges can’t be sustained, the underlying offense still gets prosecuted.
Yu said the legal consequences for perpetrators of hate crimes can vary depending on the specific details of each case. For less serious, non-violent hate crimes, the office may recommend options like mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment, or anti-bias education programs as an alternative to incarceration. However, for more serious, violent hate crime cases, such as attempted murder, incarceration is likely to be the consequence in order to hold the perpetrator accountable and protect public safety. Yaniv added that in most cases, a hate crime conviction leads to a “bump up,” so an A misdemeanor becomes an E felony, an E felony becomes a D felony and so on.
Both the Brooklyn and Manhattan DA’s offices said they provide support for hate crime victims. Migrant victims may be eligible for a U-Visa, which grants legal status to certain crime victims who cooperate with law enforcement. All crime victims are also connected to immigration services and other resources.
Yu urged victims to report hate crimes as soon as possible. “The sooner police get involved, the quicker we can investigate,” she said. Victims who have concerns about their police reports can also contact the Manhattan DA’s hate crimes hotline at (212) 335-3100.
“I completely appreciate that it is a very scary time to be an immigrant. It’s a scary time to have any non-citizen immigration status. It’s a very uncertain time,” said Yu. “I can’t take the fear away, but I can just give the assurance that we don’t ask for the immigration status. And we don’t share any information with ICE.”
