In the latest attempt to silence conversations about race and gender equity deemed “anti-American,” President Trump issued an executive order last week banning federal entities and contractors from providing employees with training on “divisive concepts” and “harmful ideologies” related to race and gender.

What Trump deems “harmful ideologies” are actually concepts diversity trainings use to educate individuals on the systemic barriers and discrimination people of color and other marginalized groups still face in this country today across our institutions — from our workplaces and schools to our criminal legal system. The recent Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements have shown that people across the country fully acknowledge the realities of systemic racism and sexism are still alive and well, and the need to dismantle the systems and pursue change is more important than ever. But rather than engage with these conversations taking place across the country, the Trump administration seeks to silence individuals and impose an alternate version of American history — one that erases the legacy of discrimination and lived experiences of Black and Brown people, women and girls, and LGBTQ+ individuals.
 
Our country needs to acknowledge its history of systemic racism and sexism and reckon with present day impacts of racial and gender discrimination. Slavery and its legacy of oppression are parts of American history that Black people are still facing today. Women, especially women of color, continue to be segregated in lower-status and lower-wage fields in the workplace, and are paid less than men across the board.

Halting all diversity training could set back progress in addressing these systemic issues, among others — including in the workplace. Talking about racism and sexism is not harmful to employees. Many employers host trainings on these issues precisely because they contribute to a workplace that is more equitable and inclusive. Instead, President Trump’s authoritarian leaning executive order presents the real danger, and takes us steps backwards in achieving full equity in this country. It also violates our First Amendment right to free speech.

President Trump’s executive order unconstitutionally requires every single individual or company with a federal contract to certify that they won’t provide trainings on so-called “divisive concepts,” even on the contractor’s own time and dime. In other words, the order effectively gags federal contractors from talking with their own employees about issues of the most profound national importance, such as the impact of systemic racism and sexism in our society. This is a blatant attempt to leverage the federal government’s vast financial resources to suppress speech about race and gender that the Trump administration disfavors.

Trump’s executive order borrows from a long-discredited playbook. In the McCarthy era, many states passed laws requiring public employees to certify that they were not members of the Communist Party or other “treasonous,” “seditious,” or “subversive” groups. In response to numerous legal challenges, including several cases brought by the ACLU, the Supreme Court firmly established that the government cannot require people to disavow participation in constitutionally protected speech or association in order to keep their jobs. Whatever power the government may have over its employees and contractors, it does not have the power to dictate their private expression on matters of public concern, including discussions about race and gender discrimination.

The Supreme Court has also rejected attempts to categorically ban or burden private expression by government employees and contractors. Such categorical bans present the gravest threat to First Amendment freedoms because they directly suppress an extraordinarily large amount of protected speech, chill even more speech before it happens, and distort discussion on matters of public concern. Of course, President Trump’s executive order is expressly designed to suppress and distort public discussion about issues that Trump considers “divisive,” such as race and gender justice. The Trump administration does not trust people to think for themselves on these issues, and so it has decided to think for them. Fortunately, the Constitution does not give President Trump that authority.

Sarah Hinger, Staff Attorney, ACLU Racial Justice Program,
& Brian Hauss, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project

As we approach the end of President Trump’s first term, it’s important to understand why and how he has inflicted such damage on our nation’s immigration system and advanced his anti-immigrant, racist agenda. Trump has been able to systematically undermine our immigration laws and principles of fundamental fairness because our immigration system is fundamentally broken. It has been for decades. 

Even before Trump sat in the Oval Office, we routinely expected policy responses like extreme vetting, deportations without due process, and blank checks from Congress and the executive branch for a massive, unhelmed immigration enforcement system. As our enforcement system grew, Congress was repeatedly unable to pass a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in our country. This is how Trump and Stephen Miller, the driver of his immigration policy, are able to issue policies that inflict pain on tens of millions of people.

So, what’s next? How do we move forward when the damage is so sweeping?

An inclusive pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented and stateless people living in the United States — without caveats or tradeoffs — is the first move. Citizenship for these 11 million people would mean that no president could rip the rug out from underneath more than 700,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, 320,000 Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, or the millions of long-time residents whose lives and status have come to depend on who is in the White House. It would also mean that federal lawmakers across the political spectrum could no longer use undocumented and stateless immigrants as leverage for justifying even more enforcement.

Both political parties have used immigrants to defend unprecedented investment in immigration enforcement. Trump repeatedly used Dreamers as bargaining chips to fund his campaign promise for more border walls. In 2013, a pathway to citizenship in an ultimately unsuccessful Senate bill was predicated on a last-minute, back-room deal for a $46 billion “border surge,” adding unprecedented surveillance, agents, and enforcement to an already militarized border. 

A clean bill, one that provides a broad and inclusive pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people without increasing funding for immigration and border enforcement, is the solution. And as we fight for this path to citizenship in Congress, we will continue to pursue relief for Dreamers and those eligible for TPS and Deferred Enforcement Departure, whose lives have been thrown into limbo by the Trump administration’s revocation of these policies.

The last four years have shown us what our existing enforcement infrastructure is capable of: A record high of 55,000 immigrants incarcerated per day; children and babies ripped out of their parents arms by Border Patrol agents; an end to asylum; forced hysterectomies in detention; a rise in contracts with private prison corporations; unprecedented raids on communities; tear gassed and malnourished children caged at the border; protestors snatched off the streets of Portland into unmarked vehicles; and extensive policy changes that will take decades to undo. We need a serious overhaul of our system to address these harms, but we need a path to citizenship that keeps families together, and one that rejects pairing this path with tradeoffs for more enforcement and border militarization. 

Immigrants, their loved ones, and our nation deserve better than the racist policies of the Trump era, and we will keep fighting for it. As our nation reckons with our legacy of white supremacy, providing full citizenship to millions of Black and Brown immigrants is critical to realizing the promise our nation has yet to deliver, despite exploiting their labor for generations. In spite of this history, immigrants continue to step up as essential workers, working on the front lines of this pandemic and risking their lives to protect our loved ones and communities.

Nationwide, there are approximately 19.8 million “essential” immigrant workers, risking their lives under the constant threat of exposure. There are 1.7 million immigrant medical and health care workers caring for COVID-19 patients, and 27,000 DACA recipients working as doctors, nurses and paramedics. Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in federal taxes each year, and yet have been inexplicably left out of COVID-relief packages. Immigrants are essential, now and for years to come — they are part of our communities, our families, and our shared history. 

We need a clean, inclusive pathway to citizenship that doesn’t include more tradeoffs and doesn’t scapegoat immigrants deemed less than deserving. Because “we the people” means all of us, regardless of immigration status.

Madhuri Grewal, Federal Immigration Policy Counsel, ACLU National Political Advocacy Department

The younger you are, the less likely you are to vote. At least, that’s been the enduring trend in American politics for decades. But that trend is beginning to shift — today’s young voters are more engaged than ever before, and if they turn out in 2020 like they did in 2018, they could significantly impact the outcome of the election.

So what does it take to get younger voters to the polls?

We take on this question in the latest episode of At the Polls, alongside Michael McDonald, a voter turnout researcher at the University of Florida, and Harvard University student and youth activist David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting in 2018.

At the Polls: How Do We Get Young People to Vote?

At the Polls: How Do We Get Young People to Vote?

American voting rates have hovered in the mid-50s for most of recent history. As these things go, that is not great. But it’s even worse with younger voters. In the 2014 midterms, less than 20 percent of voters under 30 cast a ballot. We saw a shi...

American voting rates have hovered in the mid-50s for most of recent history. As these things go, that is not great. But it’s even worse with younger voters. In the 2014 midterms, less than 20 percent of voters under 30 cast a ballot. We saw a shi...

Listen to this episode

Turnout is expected to be higher than usual for all voters in the 2020 election, potentially exceeding 65 percent. The last time voter turnout was that high was in 1908. And because Millennials are the largest voting bloc in the electorate — by numbers alone — they have the power to overhaul the political system. It’s their future, and they know it.

Listen and subscribe to stay updated on all things Election 2020.

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