The Trump administration on Wednesday threatened federal employees with “severe consequences” if they fail to report colleagues who defy orders to purge their agencies of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Tens of thousands of workers were notified that officials would not tolerate any efforts “to hide these programs using coded or inaccurate language.” The sent emails, which were based on a form from the Office of Personnel Management, gave employees 10 days to report their observations to a private email account without risking disciplinary action.
“There will be no adverse consequences for reporting this information in a timely manner,” the form sent to agency heads said. “However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in negative consequences.”
“These programs have divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and led to shameful discrimination,” the letter also said.
Some agencies, such as the Department of Education and the State Department, sent the form to their employees on Wednesday. Other agencies made minor adjustments when they sent emails to their employees. For example, the Department of Homeland Security said that failure to report DEI efforts would “result” in negative consequences.
These warnings were a major escalation of President Trump’s war on diversity programs that seek to reverse decades of systemic inequality. The attacks were also part of a broader assault on the federal workforce, which the president has long viewed as a bloated bureaucracy. He has pledged to abolish departments and order remote workers to return to their offices.
In his inaugural address, Trump said he would stop efforts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”
“We will forge a color-blind, merit-based society,” Mr. Trump declared.
On Tuesday night, the Trump administration issued a memo saying that employees working in DEI offices across the government would be placed on administrative leave by 5 p.m. Wednesday, the first step toward closing offices and programs completely. Agencies were ordered to make plans to lay off office staff, who are also tasked with addressing accessibility issues for people with disabilities, by January 31.
The directive was felt within hours of that memo being issued.
Stop work orders were issued early Wednesday morning. A contractor at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, was asked to halt a project collecting demographic data for the agency, which for years has documented details about gender, race and military status. The results of a DEI survey conducted last year will not be published next month, as planned, this person said.
Also on Wednesday, a live broadcast planned by USCIS to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. was cancelled, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. The Asylum and Refugee Staff event, scheduled for January 29, was scheduled to include speakers discussing Dr. King’s legacy and a reading of his “I Have a Dream” speech.
Everett Kelly, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said Trump’s attacks on DEI were “just a smokescreen to fire civil servants.”
“The federal government already hires and promotes exclusively on the basis of merit,” Kelly said.
Darilee Rodriguez, acting senior co-counsel of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said the orders revealed a fundamental misunderstanding of the subject of DEI initiatives, and that the federal government still must adhere to civil rights laws.
“DEI is not about preferential treatment,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “It’s about removing barriers.”
In recent days, Trump rescinded a 60-year-old executive order, dating back to the Lyndon Johnson era, that prohibited discrimination in hiring practices in federal government contracting. And he The FAA directed To stop employment practices that seek diversity, equality, and inclusion, stressing that such practices expose passengers on board airlines to danger.
Under the Biden administration, the FAA “has sought to recruit and employ individuals with serious impairments that could impact the execution of their essential life-saving duties,” the Trump administration said. No examples were cited, and administration officials did not respond to a single request.
Some conservative groups praised Mr. Trump’s moves. Yukong Mike Chao, president of the Asian American Coalition for Education, called Mr. Trump’s orders “a major milestone in the advancement of American civil rights and a critical step toward building a color-blind society.”
“Affirmative action and woke DEI programs are racism in disguise,” said Mr. Chao, whose group supported the lawsuit against Harvard that led to the repeal of affirmative action in college admissions.
The barrage of efforts in recent days has spread fear and confusion among the federal workforce, according to employees who spoke to The Times.
One department employee who received an email urging employees to report colleagues said it made them feel as if they were being recruited into the Gestapo. Another employee told The Times that the directive to report his colleagues made him feel as if he were living in the Soviet Union. The Times reviewed emails from more than a half-dozen agencies, including AmeriCorps, which oversees volunteers and service programs.
Several agencies have announced their intention to comply with the new rules.
A CIA spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the agency had disbanded its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and that its staff were “resolutely focused on our intelligence mission.”
Under former CIA Director William J. Burns, the Office of Diversity provided training to intelligence officers on promoting inclusive environments and improving recruiting.
Other agencies remain unsure about what Mr. Trump’s orders mean for them. At the EPA, which includes an Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, some employees said they were unsure whether they would have jobs Thursday.
Matthew Tejada, who served as deputy assistant director for environmental justice under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said he has employed many people who may be at risk.
“People don’t work at the EPA because they want a federal job,” Mr. Tejada said. “They work at the EPA because they want to protect the environment and people’s health.”
Michael D. Share, Julian Barnes and Eric Schmidt Contributed to reports.
