07/10/2025
In late March, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which oversees anti-discrimination enforcement for the Department of Homeland Security, was dissolved. The entire office was found to be “non-essential or not legally mandated,” as were two smaller offices that conducted oversight of the immigration-detention system and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A spokesperson for D.H.S. referred to the three as “internal adversaries.” Civil-rights mechanisms at Homeland Security were essentially wiped out.
Across the federal government, offices and programs that work to insure equal treatment are increasingly in peril. The Department of Housing and Urban Development cancelled grants that go to poor people with disabilities. The Department of Health and Human Services, a division that helps disabled people and seniors live at home, had its staff cut in half. Trump’s trillion-dollar reduction in Medicaid spending, meanwhile, could make it harder for disabled people to access long-term care. The Department of Labor withdrew a plan to establish a minimum wage for workers with disabilities and abolished wage protections for the home-health aides who assist millions of seniors and disabled people. “Prior to this year, there was such a hope that the needle had moved,” a former employee of D.O.L. who is legally blind told E. Tammy Kim. “Now, I’m looking for employment. Do I even say I’m a person with disabilities?” Read about the impact of Trump’s attack on disability rights: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/HhE1k4
