Lives are put in danger by diminishing the federal government's ability to protect communities from toxic pollution.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 02/06/25
MEDIA CONTACT: Edder Díaz Martínez, Communications Manager, 602-832-6039, edderdiazmartinez@greenlatinos.org
WASHINGTON— On Thursday, February 6th, the Trump Administration announced that it would close the EPAs Environmental Justice office and place more than 150 employees workers on administrative leave. They have also moved to slash professional staff at the environmental offices at the Department of Justice, greatly reducing their ability to legally defend our communities from deadly waste, chemicals, and, pollution.
Following the announcement of this news, GreenLatinos Founding President & CEO Mark Magaña releases the following statement:
“Gutting the EPA’s environmental justice and civil rights offices is a blatant attack on frontline communities and a reckless step toward dismantling the agency altogether. Putting dedicated EJ staffers on administrative leave is not just bureaucratic maneuvering—it is a calculated move to silence those fighting for clean air, clean water, and healthy families. This is straight out of the Project 2025 playbook, designed to cripple the very institutions meant to protect our communities from being poisoned by industrial pollution.
Let’s be clear: This is not just policy; it is a direct assault on the health and survival of Brown, Black, Indigenous, underserved, and low-income communities who have suffered for generations from toxic air, poisoned water, and environmental racism. The EPA’s EJ Office was created to reverse decades of injustice and invest in communities long abandoned by the government. Shutting it down is a death sentence for those already bearing the brunt of industrial pollution and climate disasters.
This administration’s allegiance to polluters over our public health is a moral failure. We demand that our elected and appointed officials publicly denounce this reckless move and take immediate action to protect the EPA and DOJ’s ability to serve the people, not polluters. Every moment of inaction allows more toxins in our air, more poison in our water, and more lives to be sacrificed for profit. This is a fight for our future, and we refuse to stand by while they dismantle the very protections keeping our communities alive.”
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About GreenLatinos
GreenLatinos (NOTE: GreenLatinos is ONE WORD) is an active comunidad of Latino/a/e leaders, emboldened by the power and wisdom of our culture, united to demand equity and dismantle racism, resourced to win our environmental, conservation, and climate justice battles, and driven to secure our political, economic, cultural, and environmental liberation.
GreenLatinos (NOTA: GreenLatinos es UNA PALABRA) es una comunidad activa de líderes latinos/a/e, envalentonados por el poder y la sabiduría de nuestra cultura, unidos para exigir equidad y desmantelar el racismo, con recursos para ganar nuestra justicia ambiental, batallas de conservación, climáticas e impulsados a asegurar nuestra liberación política, económica, cultural y ambiental.