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On August 30, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced final new "borrower defense" regulations that rolled back protections for student borrowers against predatory recruiting and other school misconduct put in place in 2016.

On September 3, the Trump administration announced that it would divert $3.6 billion of funding for military construction projects to fund the president's harmful and wasteful wall along the southern border.

On September 11, multiple reports confirmed that the Trump administration would not grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Bahamians impacted by Hurricane Dorian. The denial of protected status follows the Trump administration's termination of the TPS designation for several other countries.

On September 17, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 1423, the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On September 19, the Department of Education proposed removing gender-based harassment - including harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and nonconformity with gender stereotypes - from the Civil Rights Data Collection's definition of harassment or bullying on the basis of sex.

On September 23, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan announced that the administration would soon end a federal immigration policy (commonly referred to as "catch and release") that allows migrant families seeking asylum in the United States to remain in this country while their asylum applications are pending.

On September 24, the Department of Labor released its final overtime rule, which raises the salary threshold to an amount far lower than the Obama Labor Department's previously finalized rule.

On September 27, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division filed a statement of interest in defense of a Roman Catholic archbishop's decision that led to the firing of a gay, married teacher - yet another move by the Trump administration to use religion as a shield against core anti-discrimination principles that protect LGBTQ people.

On October 1, the Department of Agriculture unveiled a new proposal to take away some state flexibility in setting benefit levels under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) - the administration's third attempt in the past year to kick people off food stamps.

On October 4, Trump signed a proclamation to deny visas to legal immigrants who are unable to prove they will have health care coverage or the ability to pay for it within 30 days of their arrival to the United States.

On October 7, the Department of Labor released a proposed tip rule that would eliminate the "80/20 rule," which says that when a tipped worker is assigned non-tip-generating 'side work' that takes up more than 20 percent of their time, the employer can't take the tip credit and must instead pay the worker the full minimum wage.

On October 22, a Department of Justice proposal published in the Federal Register proposed to begin collecting DNA samples from immigrants crossing the border, creating an enormous database of asylum-seekers and other migrants.

On October 23, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 4617, the Stopping Harmful Interference in Elections for a Lasting Democracy (SHIELD) Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On October 25, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a new policy to narrow who can qualify for waivers of fees associated with applications for green cards, U.S. citizenship, work permits, and other benefits.

On October 25, Attorney General William Barr issued two decisions, made through his certification power, that will limit immigrants' options to fight deportation.

On November 1, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule to undo requirements that its grantees ensure that federal taxpayer dollars are not used to fund discrimination.

On November 1, the Department of Education issued a final regulation permitting religious colleges and universities to ignore nondiscrimination standards set by accrediting agencies.

On November 18, the Social Security Administration published in the Federal Register a proposal to slash Social Security disability benefits - which could cut benefits for up to 2.6 million people with disabilities.

On December 3, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 4, the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On December 10, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) revealed a proposed rule that would prohibit the use of official time by union representatives to assist in federal workplace anti-discrimination claims.

On December 11, memos obtained by NPR revealed that Secretary Betsy DeVos overruled career staff in the Department of Education's Borrower Defense Unit, who recommended to the department's political leadership that defrauded student borrowers deserve no less than full relief from their student debts (the secretary instead provided only partial or no relief to most such borrowers).

On December 12, the Trump administration approved a waiver allowing South Carolina to require most Medicaid recipients to work.

On December 18, Attorney General William Barr announced the launch of Operation Relentless Pursuit, which was projected to funnel $71 million to law enforcement in seven cities - Albuquerque, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Memphis, and Milwaukee - under the guise of combating violent crime. Operation Relentless Pursuit replicates the most devastating aspects of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which flooded America's streets with cops and dramatically increased incarceration rates, especially in Black and Brown communities.

On December 27, HuffPost reported that the Department of the Interior removed "sexual orientation" from a statement in the agency's ethics guide regarding workplace discrimination.

On December 30, the Department of Labor announced a proposed rule setting out new standards for when the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs could issue predetermination notices for preliminary findings of discrimination. The rule would make it more difficult to identify and remedy potential discrimination in federal contractor and subcontractor workplaces, negatively impacting the right of federal contract workers to be free from unlawful employment discrimination.
2020

On January 3, the Trump administration filed a brief in June Medical Services v. Gee, urging the Court to allow a Louisiana abortion access law to go into effect. The civil rights community filed briefs urging the Court to strike down the restrictive law, highlighting the law's impact on Black women.

On January 7, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a proposal that would gut the agency's 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. HUD's proposal would leave people of color, women, and other protected communities already harmed by unfair and unequal housing policies at a further disadvantage.

On January 13, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration would divert $7.2 billion of funding from the Pentagon to fund the president's harmful and wasteful wall along the southern border.

On January 13 (and subsequently on February 11 for the Senate companion resolution), the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.J. Res 76, a resolution under the Congressional Review Act to overturn Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's borrower defense rule. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports this resolution.

On January 13, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 1230, the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On January 16, nine federal agencies issued proposed rules eliminating the rights of people receiving help from federal programs to (i) request a referral if they have a concern or problem with a faith-based provider and (ii) receive written notice of their rights. The changes would encourage agencies to claim broader religious exemptions to deny help to certain people while receiving federal funds.

On January 23, the Department of State announced a new regulation aimed at denying pregnant people visas to prevent them from traveling to the United States. The regulation represents an attack against pregnant people living in countries without access to the Visa Waiver Program and immigrant women, particularly those of color, and with low incomes.

On January 30, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released block grant guidance to allow states to cap Medicaid spending - essentially putting forward the notion that we should ration health care for the most vulnerable people in our nation.

On January 31, the Trump administration announced an expansion of its Muslim ban, which will expand restrictions on additional countries including Myanmar (also known as Burma), Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania.

On February 5, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 2474, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On February 10, the Trump administration released its Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposal, which included $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the ACA over 10 years, cuts to SNAP by $182 billion over 10 years, cuts assistance for some people with disabilities through Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income, and reduces the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program by $21 billion over 10 years, among other drastic cuts.

On February 13, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed to amend the Equal Participation of Faith-Based Organizations rule that removes safeguards to prevent discrimination.

On February 14, the Trump administration announced the deployment of law enforcement tactical units from the southern border as part of an arrest operation in sanctuary cities across the country. This includes the deployment of members of the elite tactical unit known as BORTAC, which acts as a Border Patrol SWAT team.

On February 20, the White House published a memo (dated January 29) signed by Trump that granted Secretary of Defense Mark Esper the authority to ignore the collective bargaining rights of civilian employees working for the Department of Defense.

On February 25, the Department of Justice sided with the plaintiff, Students for Fair Admissions, to oppose race-based affirmative action at Harvard University in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

On February 26, the Department of Homeland Security expanded two pilot programs, the Humanitarian Asylum Review Process (HARP) for Mexican nationals and Prompt Asylum Claim Review (PACR), that fast-track the asylum process for migrants at the U.S. border. The American Civil Liberties Union argues that both programs deny asylum seekers due process since it is nearly impossible for the migrants to access legal help.

On February 26, the Department of Justice created a Denaturalization Section in its immigration office to prioritize stripping citizenship rights from naturalized immigrants who commit certain crimes.

On February 27, the Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in support of a Kentucky wedding photographer who is challenging a city ordinance banning businesses from discriminating against gay customers. The photographer, Chelsey Nelson, refused to photograph same-sex weddings due to her religious beliefs.

On February 28, the Department of Justice proposed regulations increasing fees for immigrants and requiring asylum seekers to pay a $50 fee to have their cases heard in court. Fees for permanent residence permits would increase by $990, to a total of $2,750, and the cost for naturalization of new citizens would increase by $445, to $1,170.

On March 6, the Department of Justice issued a rule saying that DNA data samples from migrants taken into federal custody after trying to cross the U.S. border can be stored and shared among federal agencies.

On March 10, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 2486, the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On March 17, the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs announced a decision to temporarily exempt and waive certain affirmative action requirements connected to federal contracts for coronavirus relief.

On March 20, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention imposed a 30-day restriction on all nonessential travel into the United States from Mexico and Canada - an effort, led by Stephen Miller, to use public health laws to reduce immigration.

On March 24, Attorney General William Barr signed a statement of interest arguing against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference's transgender athlete policy, which allows athletes to compete as the gender with which they identify.

On April 20, the Trump administration extended its March 2020 CDC rule on border restrictions until May 20, 2020.

On April 22, Trump signed an executive order to temporarily ban the issuance of green cards to people seeking permanent residency in the United States - a move that was viewed as a shameless manipulation of the pandemic to justify the administration's xenophobic policies.

On April 30, the Department of Education issued guidance, flouting congressional intent under the CARES Act, that directs school districts to share millions of dollars designated for low-income students with wealthy private schools.

On May 6, the Department of Education released its final rule on Title IX that raises the bar of proof for sexual misconduct, bolsters the rights of those accused, and introduces new protections that include sexual harassment. If the rule takes effect, it will silence sexual assault survivors and limit their educational opportunity.

On May 12, the Department of Agriculture appealed an injunction that blocked the agency from proceeding with cuts to the SNAP program (food stamps). The new requirements, if the USDA wins its appeals, would strip 688,000 Americans of their food benefits.

On May 12, the Department of Health and Human Services eliminated sexual orientation and gender identity and tribal data collection in the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS, which collects case-level information on all children in foster care and those who have been adopted with title IV-E agency involvement).

On May 14, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 6800, the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On May 15, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights sent a letter of impending enforcement action to the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and six school districts declaring that Title IX requires schools to ban transgender students from competing in school sports based on their gender identity and threatening to withhold funding from Connecticut schools if they do not comply.

On May 19, the Trump administration announced the indefinite extension of its CDC order that allows federal authorities at the border to immediately return migrants to their home countries.

On May 26, the Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in an Alabama federal court in support of the state's onerous absentee ballot requirements that put Black voters and voters with disabilities at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On May 29, Trump vetoed a bipartisan resolution to overturn a Department of Education rule and hold Secretary DeVos accountable for failing to provide relief to students defrauded by for-profit colleges.

On May 29, Trump issued a presidential proclamation aimed at restricting the entry of graduate students and researchers from China.

On June 1, police officers and the National Guard dispersed peaceful protesters outside the White House using teargas and flash-bang explosions so that Trump could pose for photos, while holding up a Bible, in front of St. John's Episcopal Church.

On June 3, the Department of Justice filed a brief in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to allow religious-affiliated adoption agencies to refuse child placement into LGBTQ homes. The Justice Department is not a party to the case.

On June 12, the Department of Health and Human Services issued its final rule rolling back the non-discrimination protections (Section 1557) of the Affordable Care Act. The rule will promote discrimination in medical care.

On June 14, The Washington Post reported that the Department of Housing and Urban Development will propose a rule that would roll back Obama-era guidance requiring single-sex homeless shelters to accept transgender people.

On June 15, a 161-page regulation from the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice was published in the Federal Register that would make it exceedingly difficult for migrants to claim asylum in the United States.

On June 19, the Department of Justice filed a statement of interest arguing that the Equal Protection Clause permits Idaho's Fairness in Women's Sports Act, which bars trans girls and women from school sports teams.

On June 22, Trump issued a proclamation to expand and extend his April 22 order that suspends some immigration from outside the United States. The new proclamation extends the initial green card ban in the April proclamation until December 31, 2020, and includes additional significant restrictions on several categories of temporary guest worker visas.

On June 24, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On June 24, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 7120, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On June 24, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy supporting H.R. 3985, the Just and Unifying Solutions To Invigorate Communities Everywhere (JUSTICE) Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights opposes.

On June 25, the Trump administration filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the entire Affordable Care Act should be invalidated - saying "the remainder of the ACA should not be allowed to remain in effect." The brief was filed in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

On July 7, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its final rule on payday and car-title lending - undoing consumer protections and threatening to devastate communities of color that are already facing the worst fallout of the pandemic.

On July 7, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights issued a notice in the Federal Register proposing changes to the Civil Rights Data Collection, including removal of several questions regarding school and district characteristics, discipline, school finance and data disaggregation.

On July 8, the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice issued a proposed rule that would bar asylum seekers from countries with disease outbreaks. The proposal does not say whether it would only apply during a global pandemic, but instead would depend on determinations made by the Attorney General and Homeland Security secretary in consultation with the Department of Health and Human Services.

On July 14, the Department of Justice filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that blocked the work requirements.

On July 14, the federal government executed Daniel Lewis Lee - the first federal execution in more than 17 years after the Trump administration resumed the federal death penalty.

On July 15, the Trump administration finalized a rule proposed by the White House Council on Environmental Quality to change how the federal government implements the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA is the federal law, signed by President Nixon in 1970, that safeguards air, water, and land by requiring environmental assessments of major infrastructure projects. The Trump administration's rule limits the number of projects that require in-depth environmental review and no longer requires federal agencies to weigh a project's vulnerability to climate change or impact on global warming.

On July 16, the Commission on Unalienable Rights (the formation of which was announced in July 2019 by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo) released a draft report to the public. Experts described the report as undermining decades of human rights progress.

On July 16, the federal government executed Wesley Ira Purkey - the second federal execution in more than 17 years after the Trump administration resumed the federal death penalty.

On July 17, the federal government executed Dustin Lee Honken - the third federal execution in more than 17 years after the Trump administration resumed the federal death penalty.

On July 21, Trump signed a memorandum attempting to ban undocumented immigrants from counting toward congressional apportionment following the 2020 Census.

On July 23, Secretary Carson terminated the Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, replacing it with a new rule called "Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice." AFFH aimed to combat segregation in housing policy.

On July 28, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf issued a memorandum to drastically curtail the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program while the agency decides whether to rescind the program completely. The memo is in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June 2020 that found the administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it rescinded the program in September 2017.

On July 30, NPR reported that the U.S. Census Bureau would be cutting census door-knocking a month short. On August 3, the bureau released a statement confirming that both field data collection and self-response would be ending a month early on September 30.

On August 6, Trump appointed J. Christian Adams to serve on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) and was sworn in one week later. Adams, who was a member of the president's sham voter suppression commission, was appointed to the USCCR on the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

On August 8, Trump signed a series of politically motivated executive actions amid the coronavirus pandemic. One of the memos he signed defers payroll taxes from September through December 2020. Trump also said that, if reelected, he would permanently terminate the payroll tax. In a letter to Senate Democrats on August 24, Stephen Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, said that such a move would deplete Social Security by mid-2023.

On August 18, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) signaled its intent to create burdensome new rules for its conciliation process that could tip the scales in favor of employers and potentially expose workers who file workplace discrimination claims, as well as potential witnesses, to retaliation.

On August 19, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) released an updated draft policy on gender and women's empowerment that eliminated any reference to transgender people or contraceptives.

On August 21, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 8015, the Delivering for America Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On August 26, Eric Dreiband, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, sent letters to the governors of Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York (all Democrats) requesting information under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) about the coronavirus response of public nursing homes in their states. The move, which occurred during the Republican National Convention, was viewed as a political move targeting Democrats to distract from the president's failed response to the pandemic.

On August 26, the Department of Education issued a "Dear Educators and Stakeholders Letter" announcing the withdrawal of eight guidance documents, including in its rationale that previous support the department expressed for diversity was advocating for "policy preferences and positions beyond the requirements of the Constitution and Title VI."

On August 26, the federal government executed Lezmond Charles Mitchell - the fourth federal execution in more than 17 years after the Trump administration resumed the federal death penalty.

On August 28, the federal government executed Keith Dwayne Nelson - the fifth federal execution in more than 17 years after the Trump administration resumed the federal death penalty.

On August 31, the Department of Education issued a notice in the Federal Register that it had rescinded almost 100 guidance documents issued since the 1990s.

On September 2, Trump sent a memorandum to the attorney general and the director of the Office of Management and Budget that threatened to pull federal funding from "anarchist jurisdictions" - cities "that are permitting anarchy, violence and destruction." This was also viewed as a political move targeting cities where people are protesting police brutality and systemic racism.

On September 3, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued an opinion letter abandoning its long-standing interpretation of Section 707 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

On September 4, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a final rule that severely weakens the disparate impact tool under the Fair Housing Act, which will make millions of people more vulnerable to housing discrimination.

On September 4, Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent a memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies instructing them to end anti-racist trainings that address white privilege and critical race theory - caalling them "divisive, anti-American propaganda."

On September 8, the Department of Justice filed a brief in support of an Indiana Catholic school that was sued for firing a teacher in a same-sex marriage.

On September 8, a whistleblower complaint from a Department of Homeland Security official alleged that top DHS officials, including Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, directed analysts to downplay threats from violent white supremacy and Russian election interference.

On September 17, the AP reported that the Department of Education is threatening to withhold some federal funding from Connecticut school districts if they follow a state policy that allows transgender girls to compete as girls in high school sports.

On September 22, Trump issued an executive order prohibiting federal agencies, federal contractors, and grantees from engaging in anti-discrimination workplace diversity trainings the administration deemed "divisive."

On September 22, the Department of Labor proposed a rule that would make it easier for employers to misclassify workers and deny them minimum wage and overtime protections.

On September 22, the federal government executed William Emmett Lecroy, Jr. - the sixth federal execution in more than 17 years after the Trump administration resumed the federal death penalty.

On September 22, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to schedule oral arguments in a case related to Trump's July 2020 memorandum attempting to ban undocumented immigrants from counting toward congressional apportionment following the 2020 Census. On September 10, a three-judge district court had barred the administration from implementing the memo.

On September 24, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued its final rule to gut the disparate impact tool under the Fair Housing Act, which will make it harder to challenge systemic racism by housing providers, financial institutions, and insurance companies that deprive people of the services and opportunities they need.

On September 24, the federal government executed Christopher Andre Vialva - the seventh federal execution in more than 17 years after the Trump administration resumed the federal death penalty.

On September 30, the State Department told Congress that it would allow only 15,000 refugees to resettle in the United States in the 2021 fiscal year, which began the following day.

On October 1, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing H.R. 8406, the HEROES Act, which The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports.

On October 6, Microsoft revealed that the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) contacted the company over its commitments to increasing diversity. According to Microsoft, "the OFCCP has focused on whether Microsoft's commitment to double the number of Black and African American people managers, senior individual contributors and senior leaders in our U.S. workforce by 2025 could constitute unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, which would violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act." The OFCCP contacted Wells Fargo for the same reason.

On October 7, the Trump administration filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to halt the 2020 Census count early. The application was filed after the Ninth Circuit upheld a district court's ruling that the administration could not stop the count at the end of September.

On October 8, a Justice Department memo suspended all diversity and inclusion training for the department's employees and managers in compliance with Trump's recent executive order banning anti-bias trainings.

On October 21, Trump signed an executive order that could expand his ability to hire and fire tens of thousands of federal employees. The order would allow federal agencies to reclassify certain workers, which would strip them of job protections. The national president of the American Federation of Government Employees referred to the order as "the most profound undermining of the civil service in our lifetimes."

On November 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of the Treasury approved Georgia's waiver request under Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act, which allows the state to exit the federal marketplace without creating a state-based marketplace to replace it. This will endanger coverage and access to care for tens of thousands of people.

On November 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing the President's Advisory 1776 Commission to "promote patriotic education." The commission, teased by Trump in remarks on September 17, was viewed as a political move aimed at censoring the teaching of American history and as an attack on The New York Times' Pulitzer-Prize winning 1619 Project, which details this nation's history beginning when the first enslaved Africans were brought to America.

On November 9, in a memo to U.S. attorneys, Attorney General William Barr authorized the opening of election fraud investigations "if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State."

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