Federal Government Attacks Foundation of Civil Rights in America

Federal Government Attacks Foundation of Civil Rights in America

Disparate impact and unintended outcomes stripped from Title VI 

[SANTA FE] – On April 23rd, the White House issued a series of executive orders. The last order – Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy – removed specific language in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act on discrimination in programs or activities receiving federal funding. Title VI is a foundational component of environmental justice because the prohibition on discrimination in federally funded programs extends to environmental regulations and projects. Title VI did not require sole reliance on overt discrimination, but also assessed the outcome of an activity without requiring intentional discrimination. Communities with a disparate impact or “disproportionate burden” – often but not always communities based on race, ethnicity or national origin – have used Title VI to challenge discriminatory practices and seek “affirmative action” to address issues such as placement of polluting facilities, cleaner air and water, and adequate public participation in environmental decisions that affect them. In response, CVNM & Los Jardines Institute issued the following statements: 

“For decades Albuquerque’s South Valley was the dumping ground for polluters who were allowed to locate among the primarily Latine semi-urban residential neighborhoods. Research has documented the bad health impacts and lower life expectancy of the people living there. Title VI gave our communities leverage, with the help of federal courts, to get the Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Albuquerque to start taking action, even though the work is not done. This new so-called ‘civil rights’ language creates a new world where the South Valley and hundreds of similar communities around the country will have no opportunity to seek any action to lessen or reverse the harms inflicted on them. Polluting industries are now on notice to leave no paper trail indicating overt, intentional discrimination. Pretending to maintain ‘equality of opportunity’, the Trump regime will allow steadily worsening harm to people like my family.” – CVNM Director of Equity & Culture Arturo Castillo, long-time resident of the South Valley

“We have fought for years and years for our civil rights, including the critical Title VI provisions of the Civil Rights Act on assessing the effects of actions taken, not just the intent. Here we go again, under this regime, with our rights take away and dismantled. We will not back down and we will continue to fight.” – Co-Coordinator of Los Jardines Institute Richard Moore, and former Co-Chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council 

“As an indigenous racial group in this country, the United States of America, disparate impact definitely hit the Navajo people due to race ignorance. For us, it has been called the uranium legacy since the 1930’s – a legacy that led to the creation of the first of many nuclear bomb testings for national security. We, including our Pueblo and Latine brothers and sisters, became the labor force for this effort not knowing that others within the government had knowledge of scientific evidence on the radiation level of uranium. For Navajo people, the costs have been tremendous. We have moved from a self-sustaining economy based on land, animals and growing crops, to an economy that now depends on imports of every kind. The spiraling negative effects since the livestock reduction in the 1920’s into becoming a ready labor force for uranium mining, while also defending this country during WWII, left a negative imprint on physical and mental health. As Americans, we are still suffering from this legacy. Let’s protect the Civil Rights Act. Let’s continue making America healthy by protecting the air, the water, the land, and all creation around us.” – CVNM Civic Engagement Associate Percy Anderson, a citizen of the Navajo Nation. 

“The President has no authority to amend federal statutes. In declaring that equality of outcomes is off the table, the regime is ignoring and erasing centuries of debilitating racism and discrimination that denied the equality of opportunity necessary for impacted individuals and communities to improve outcomes. Similarly, the April 9th order to stop enforcement of state and local laws, rules and policies containing the words ‘climate change,’ ‘environmental, social, and governance’ initiatives, ‘environmental justice,’ and ‘carbon or greenhouse gas emissions’ is an unconstitutional effort to erase real, measurable facts under the guise of an invented national emergency. Trump has also called for a series of illegal ‘alternative’ permitting procedures in the Department of Interior that will impede any effective public or sovereign tribal response to the selling of federal public lands and the unrestricted taking of natural resources on federal lands. These endless and illegal executive orders are the acts of an increasingly authoritarian government determined to intimidate and sow chaos in the service of a billionaire-fueled federal power grab. We call on state leaders to do all they can to protect New Mexicans from the cruelty and harm intended by these federal actions.” – CVNM Chief Operating Officer Molly Taylor 

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