Advances of AANHPI communities under Biden get revoked by Trump

On the day the nation was supposed to honor the late civil rights icon Martin Luther King,  Donald Trump was inaugurated as President and then he immediately began trying to undo King's legacy and President Biden's policies aiding Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders. 

Among the scores of chaos-inducing Executive Orders issued by Trump on January 20, 2025, Martin Luther King Day, was one titled Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions.

The Order’s stated purpose is to retract whatRepublicans describes as the “deeply unpopular” and “radical” practices of President Biden. The Order specifically calls out the “injection of diversity, equity and inclusion” and states that such measures have corrupted our institutions by replacing “hard work, merit and equality.”

Trump''s Executive Order goes on to revoke numerous prior executive orders that were specifically part of Biden's policies and practices meant to help, protect and advance AANHPI communities and individuals and encourage them to become part of the process of making goernment policies

Among the policies Trump rescinded is Executive Order 14031, “Advancing Equity, Justice, and Opportunity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders,” which was enacted in 2021 and one of several Executive Orders President Biden signed supporting the AANHPI community. Part of Biden's order established the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders and mandated federal agencies collect disaggregated data for the diverse communities that fall under the AANHPI umbrella. In fact, the webpage for the White House Advisor Commission AANHPI no longer exists.

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Among the other controversial Executive Orders that would affect the lives of AANHPI was the revocation of E.O. 13988, “Ensuring a Lawful and Accurate Enumeration and Apportionment Pursuant to the Decennial Census.” E.O. 13988 recognized the diversity within the AANHPI communities that covers dozens of nationalities and ethnicities from Asia and allowed the collection of disaggregated data so that the wide range of needs of each community could be ennumerated and addressed.

"The rollback of this action would lead to dangerous targeting, inaccurate population count resulting in a failure of full representation, and skewed data distribution resources to communities around the country to communities around the country," said Advancing Asian American Justice in a press release. 

In response to the Trump orders, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued the following statement:

"The Trump administration’s three executive orders targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives take a 'shock and awe' approach that upends longstanding, bipartisan federal policy meant to open doors that had been unfairly closed. In his first few days, President Donald Trump is undertaking a deliberate effort to obfuscate and weaponize civil rights laws that address discrimination and ensure everyone has a fair chance to compete, whether it’s for a job, a promotion, or an education.

"With these actions, the administration is not only undoing decades of federal anti-discrimination policy, spanning Democratic and Republican presidential administrations alike, but also marshalling federal enforcement agencies to bully both private and government entities into abandoning legal efforts to promote equity and remedy systemic discrimination. Trump’s executive orders undermine obligations dating back to the Johnson administration that firms doing business with the US government and receiving billions in public dollars are held to the highest standards in remedying and preventing bias."

THREAT TO CIVIL RIGHTS

One of Trump's first-week Executive Orders rescinded a Civil Rights-era rule that has helped protect millions of workers from discrimination.

Trump's Jan. 21 Execuitive Order revokes the Equal Employment Opportunity rule signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which is, thankfully, still the law today — did not include federal employees.

Johnson signed the Equal Employment Opportunity rule to close that particular loophole, and those protections were signed into law in 1972.

That rule bars federal contractors, who today employ 3.7 million people, from discriminating against job applicants or workers on the basis of race, gender, religion and other protected characteristics. It also gave the Labor Department the authority to take action against the contractors accused of discrimination.

Among the Biden Executive Orders revoked by Trump's Executive Orders stepping back civil rights, representation and equal rights  are:

• Executive Order 14031 of May 28, 2021 (Advancing Equity, Justice, and Opportunity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders);

• Executive Order 13985 of January 20, 2021 (Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government);

• Executive Order 13988 of January 20, 2021 (Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation);

• Executive Order 13993 of January 20, 2021 (Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities);

• Executive Order of 13999 of January 21, 2021 (Protecting Worker Health and Safety); Executive Order 14020 of March 8, 2021 (Establishment of the White House Gender Policy Council);

• Executive Order 14055 of November 18, 2021 (Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers under Service Contracts); and

• Executive Order 14075 of June 15, 2022 (Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals) among many others.

PRIVATE SECTOR IMPACT

Almost immediately, federal agencies began tearing down posters advocating diversity and equal opportunities and groups formed to develop and promote diversity  policies and a sense of belonging were disbanded.

“I’ve been here for four years, and in that time, we’ve made progress to help employees just have a better lived work experience,” said one Treasury Department employee to NBC News. “Four years later in the snap of fingers, our work is being completely undone. … It’s one step forward, two steps back."

Some companies in the private sector quickly followed suit ending or curbing their DEI policies and the departments that were supposed to oversee and encourage those efforts. Meta, Amazon, Target, Ford and McDonalds were among the companies that couldn't wait for Trump to sign the Executive Order and began curbing their own DEI efforts as soon as Trump was declared winner of the Presidential election last November.

Trump's executive order also requires federal agencies to investigate publicly traded companies, large nonprofits and other private institutions with DEI programs that MAGAists believe "constitute illegal discrimination or preferences," in an apparent attempt to coerce those businesses into the new compliance.

To their credit, some companies -- such as Costco, Bank of America, Citi, and Apple -- have resisted the move to eliminate or curb their DEI practices claiming that the programs are good for business.

"Many of these now-revoked Executive Orders involve equal opportunity for individuals based on race, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation," the ACLU states. "While these orders have been revoked, both state and federal laws continue to prohibit discrimination on the basis of these characteristics. "

Martin Luther King must be turning over in his grave.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.