National civil right leaders called for a meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to discuss concerns about President Donald Trump’s plans to roll back programs that support diversity efforts at federal agencies.
“We are deeply concerned about the recent executive actions by the Trump Administration that seek to undo decades of bipartisan support for civil and human rights,” the leaders wrote in a letter dated Wednesday. “These actions undermine equal opportunity, jeopardize America’s economic growth and global competitiveness, and threaten the foundational principles of our democracy.”
The letter was addressed to Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats from New York, and Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, both Republicans.
It comes on the heels of a meeting of about 20 leaders of national civil rights organizations in Washington, D.C., last month to lay out concerns about Trump’s executive order to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“We cannot fight this battle in silence,” Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, which convened the meeting, told USA TODAY then.
Trump followed through with a campaign promise, signing an executive order last month to eliminate DEI programs across the federal government. Trump and his allies argue the programs discriminate against white Americans.
“My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense,” Trump said at the World Economic Forum last month. “These are policies that were absolute nonsense throughout the government and the private sector.”
Trump also rescinded several initiatives that promoted diversity under the Biden administration.
“The injection of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy,” one of Trump’s actions read.
In Wednesday’s letter to congressional leaders, civil rights activists called “deplorable” Trump’s implication that DEI policies could have been a factor in an aircraft collision last month that killed 67 people near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The leaders called it a “dog whistle to inflame division and hate further instead of focusing on the needs of victims and their families.”
Some groups signing the letter include the National Council of Jewish Women, the National Women’s Law Center, the League of United Latin American Citizens and Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC).