Worker Policy Watch
Your source for accurate and reliable information on how federal policies are shaping workers’ rights—and what’s at stake for working people nationwide under the Trump administration.
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In Attack on Immigrant Workers, ICE Begins Workplace Raids
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have begun to conduct raids on workplaces to arrest and deport undocumented immigrant workers. Trump pledged to conduct mass deportations during his campaign, and reports indicate that the administration has tasked ICE with daily quotas for arrests.
Impact:
Worksite raids are incredibly harmful for immigrant workers, families, and communities, and for all workers. The prospect of ICE raids gives unscrupulous employers yet another tool to threaten and retaliate against immigrant workers who speak up and organize against low wages and unsafe working conditions, driving down job quality for all workers.
Trump Redirects U.S. Policy on Artificial Intelligence
Trump replaced Biden’s 2023 executive order on artificial intelligence - which considered equity and civil rights - with one that directs federal agencies to roll back progress made as a result of that order. The new order centers innovation and national security concerns rather than the impact that artificial intelligence is already having on Americans, including in our workplaces.
Impact:
The order paves the way for the Department of Labor to roll back policy guidance issued under the Biden order, like the Wage and Hour Division’s guidance clarifying employer obligations under the Fair Labor Standards Act when using AI to manage their workers.
Trump Administration Freezes Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
The Trump-appointed chief of staff of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division issued a memo directing agency attorneys not to take any new actions to enforce civil rights law.
Impact:
The DOJ’s civil rights division enforces federal laws that prohibit discrimination, including in the workplace. Along with the administration’s attacks on agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), this freeze will leave workers more vulnerable to discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin. Our laws are only as strong as our ability to make them real through robust enforcement.
Trump Administration Rescinds Biden Policy That Limited Civil Immigration Enforcement at Courthouses
The Acting ICE Director rescinded and replaced the Biden administration’s policy limiting ICE’s ability to engage in civil immigration enforcement at or near courthouses. Under ICE’s new policy, ICE has more leeway to arrest immigrants, whether they are ICE’s target or not, while they attend court proceedings or are otherwise at or near courthouses.
Impact:
Workers involved in private litigation or litigation brought by labor agencies can be vulnerable to civil immigration arrest by ICE while attending those court proceedings. This is already having a chilling effect on workers and hindering their and labor agencies’ ability to enforce labor and employment laws given the increased risk workers face if they participate in those proceedings.
Trump Abandons Six Decades of Progress on Workplace Discrimination Protections for Federal Contractors
Trump revoked Executive Order 11246, which enabled the U.S. Department of Labor to evaluate and audit federal contractors to prevent and address discrimination, and ordered the Labor Department to cease all proactive efforts to ensure that federal contractors use the best legal employment practices to ensure hiring processes and workplaces are free from illegal discrimination.
Impact: With this order, the president gutted key tools to prevent discrimination and root it out at its core. This is not a return to so-called ‘meritocracy.’ Rather, it’s an attempted return to the days when people of color, women, and other marginalized people lacked the tools to ensure that they were evaluated on their merits.
Trump Appoints Commissioner Andrea Lucas as Acting Chair of EEOC
Trump appointed Commissioner Andrea Lucas to serve as Acting Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Acting Chair Lucas replaces former Chair Charlotte Burrows, who had served as the chair since January 2021.
Impact:
Lucas announced that her priorities would include attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and imposing the biologically inaccurate gender binary on workplaces. These priorities will make workplaces less inclusive and leave many groups of workers, especially LGBTQ workers, more vulnerable to discrimination.
Trump Attacks Civil Rights Protections for Trans and Nonbinary People
The Supreme Court held in its Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) ruling that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act’s prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex applied to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. This executive order rolls back the Biden administration’s work to apply the ruling to ensure that our civil rights laws protect trans and gender non-binary people and directs federal agencies to further marginalize them under their jurisdiction.
Impact: The order directs agencies, including the Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to change language, prioritize enforcing a biologically inaccurate gender binary, and rescind relevant policy guidance in their jurisdictions. This includes the EEOC’s updated guidance on workplace harassment. Trans and gender non-binary people will face greater harassment and discrimination as a result of this order.
Trump Targets Programs Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
This executive order incorrectly characterizes programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion as “illegal” and “discriminatory” and orders the administration to remove them from federal agency initiatives.
Impact: The administration seeks to reverse the progress made by the Biden administration to consider equity when implementing law and policy. Diversity and equity considerations made the federal workforce more effective, disrupted occupational segregation, and ensured that policy interventions and investments reached the communities that needed them the most.
Trump Rescinds Biden Environmental Protection and Climate Change Policy
President Trump removes the United States from the Paris Accord and authorizes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.
Impact:
The Trump administration’s reversal jeopardizes global climate change goals and further risks climate change disaster on American communities and workers, which disproportionately impacts low income and communities of color.
Trump Rescinds Biden EO That Included Non-Citizens in Census
President Trump wants to exclude non-citizens from being counted in the census, which will impact how Congressional representation is allocated and an accurate measure of how many people are living in this country and in Congressional districts.
Impact: The Biden EO reversed a Trump era EO that excluded non-citizens from numbers of persons used for apportioning congressional seats. The 2020 Trump EO excluded over 10 million persons from being counted in the Census, thus limiting their Congressional representation.