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Trump's EPA eliminates research and development office and begins layoffs

Trump's EPA eliminates research and development office and begins layoffs

The Guardian7 days ago
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees. One union leader said the moves 'will devastate public health in our country'.
The agency's office of research and development (ORD) has long provided the scientific underpinnings for the EPA's mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues such as air and water.
The agency said on Friday it is creating a new office of applied science and environmental solutions that will allow it to focus on research and science 'more than ever before'.
Once fully implemented, the changes will save the EPA nearly $750m, officials said.
Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House science committee, called the elimination of the research office 'a travesty'.
'The Trump administration is firing hardworking scientists while employing political appointees whose job it is to lie incessantly to Congress and to the American people,' she said. 'The obliteration of ORD will have generational impacts on Americans' health and safety.'
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement that the changes announced Friday would ensure the agency 'is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment, while Powering the Great American Comeback'.
The EPA also said it is beginning the process to eliminate thousands of jobs, following asupreme court ruling last week that cleared the way for Donald Trump's plans to downsize the federal workforce, despite warnings that critical government services will be lost and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be out of their jobs.
Total staffing at EPA will go down to 12,448, a reduction of more than 3,700 employees, or nearly 23%, from staffing levels in January when Trump took office, the agency said.
'This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars,' Zeldin said, using a government term for mass firings.
The office of research and development 'is the heart and brain of the EPA', said Justin Chen, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents thousands of EPA employees.
'Without it, we don't have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment,' Chen said. 'Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.'
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The research office – EPA's main science arm – currently has 1,540 positions, excluding special government employees and public health officers, according to agency documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the House science panel earlier this year. As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists could be laid off, the documents indicated.
The research office has 10 facilities across the country, stretching from Florida and North Carolina to Oregon. An EPA spokeswoman said that all laboratory functions currently conducted by the research office will continue.
In addition to the reduction in force, the agency also is offering the third round of deferred resignations for eligible employees, including research office staff, spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said. The application period is open until 25 July.
The EPA's announcement comes two weeks after the agency put on administrative leave 139 employees who signed a 'declaration of dissent' with agency policies under the Trump administration. The agency accused the employees of 'unlawfully undermining' Trump's agenda.
In a letter made public on 30June, the employees wrote that the EPA is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment. The letter represented rare public criticism from agency employees who knew they could face retaliation for speaking out.
Associated Press contributed to reporting
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Victory for Christian foster mom agency tried to ban after she said she wouldn't give trans child hormones
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Victory for Christian foster mom agency tried to ban after she said she wouldn't give trans child hormones

A widowed Christian mom-of-five scored a major legal victory after a federal appeals court ruled that the state of Oregon violated her constitutional rights by barring her from adopting foster children because of her refusal to support gender transitions. Jessica Bates, who says her faith prevents her from using preferred pronouns or facilitating hormone treatments, was blocked by the state after she said she could not affirm an LGBTQ + child's identity. She sued - and now, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with her, calling the state's policy a violation of her free speech and religious freedom. 'This is a win not just for me, but for people of faith who want to help kids without compromising their beliefs,' Bates said after the ruling. In a 2-1 decision issued on Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) policy that effectively barred Bates from becoming a foster parent. 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Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You've got no rights.' He secretly recorded his brutal arrest
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timean hour ago

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Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You've got no rights.' He secretly recorded his brutal arrest

On the morning of 2 May, teenager Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio was driving to his landscaping job in North Palm Beach with his mother and two male friends when they were pulled over by the Florida highway patrol. In one swift moment, a traffic stop turned into a violent arrest. A highway patrol officer asked everyone in the van to identify themselves, then called for backup. Officers with US border patrol arrived on the scene. Video footage of the incident captured by Laynez-Ambrosio, an 18-year-old US citizen, appears to show a group of officers in tactical gear working together to violently detain the three men*, two of whom are undocumented. They appear to use a stun gun on one man, put another in a chokehold and can be heard telling Laynez-Ambrosio: 'You've got no rights here. You're a migo, brother.' Afterward, agents can be heard bragging and making light of the arrests, calling the stun gun use 'funny' and quipping: 'You can smell that … $30,000 bonus.' The footage has put fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used by US law enforcement officials as the Trump administration sets ambitious enforcement targets to detain thousands of immigrants every day. 'The federal government has imposed quotas for the arrest of immigrants,' said Jack Scarola, an attorney who is advocating on behalf of Laynez-Ambrosio and working with the non-profit Guatemalan-Maya Center, which provided the footage to the Guardian. 'Any time law enforcement is compelled to work towards a quota, it poses a significant risk to other rights.' The incident unfolded at roughly 9am, when a highway patrol officer pulled over the company work van, driven by Laynez-Ambrosio's mother, and discovered that she had a suspended license. Laynez-Ambrosio said he is unsure why the van was pulled over, as his mother was driving below the speed limit. Laynez-Ambrosio hadn't intended to film the interaction – he already had his phone out to show his mom 'a silly TikTok', he said – but immediately clicked record when it became clear what was happening. The video begins after the van has been pulled over and the border patrol had arrived. A female officer can be heard asking, in Spanish, whether anyone is in the country illegally. One of Laynez-Ambrosio's friends answers that he is undocumented. 'That's when they said, 'OK, let's go,'' Laynez-Ambrosio recalled. Laynez-Ambrosio said things turned aggressive before the group even had a chance to exit the van. One of the officers 'put his hand inside the window', he said, 'popped the door open, grabbed my friend by the neck and had him in a chokehold'. Footage appears to show officers then reaching for Laynez-Ambrosio and his other friend as Laynez-Ambrosio can be heard protesting: 'You can't grab me like that.' Multiple officers can be seen pulling the other man from the van and telling him to 'put your fucking head down'. The footage captures the sound of a stun gun as Laynez-Ambrosio's friend cries out in pain and drops to the ground. Laynez-Ambrosio said that his friend was not resisting, and that he didn't speak English and didn't understand the officer's commands. 'My friend didn't do anything before they grabbed him,' he said. In the video, Laynez-Ambrosio can be heard repeatedly telling his friend, in Spanish, to not resist. 'I wasn't really worried about myself because I knew I was going to get out of the situation,' he said. 'But I was worried about him. I could speak up for him but not fight back, because I would've made the situation worse.' Laynez-Ambrosio can also be heard telling officers: 'I was born and raised right here.' Still, he was pushed to the ground and says that an officer aimed a stun gun at him. He was subsequently arrested and held in a cell at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) station for six hours. Audio in the video catches the unidentified officers debriefing and appearing to make light of the stun gun use. 'You're funny, bro,' one officer can be overheard saying to another, followed by laughter. Another officer says, 'They're starting to resist more now,' to which an officer replies: 'We're going to end up shooting some of them.' Later in the footage, the officers move on to general celebration – 'Goddamn! Woo! Nice!' – and talk of the potential bonus they'll be getting: 'Just remember, you can smell that [inaudible] $30,000 bonus.' It is unclear what bonus they are referring to. Donald Trump's recent spending bill includes billions of additional dollars for Ice that could be spent on recruitment and retention tactics such as bonuses. Laynez-Ambrosio said his two friends were eventually transferred to the Krome detention center in Miami. He believes they were released on bail and are awaiting a court hearing, but said it has been difficult to stay in touch with them. Laynez-Ambrosio's notice to appear in court confirms that the border patrol arrived on the scene, having been called in by the highway patrol. His other legal representative, Victoria Mesa-Estrada, also confirmed that border patrol officers transported the three men to the border patrol facility. The Florida highway patrol, CBP, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment before publication. Laynez-Ambrosio was charged with obstruction without violence and sentenced to 10 hours of community service and a four-hour anger management course. While in detention, he said, police threatened him with charges if he did not delete the video footage from his phone, but he refused. Scarola, his lawyer, said the charges were retaliation for filming the incident. 'Kenny was charged with filming [and was] alleged to have interfered with the activities of law enforcement,' he explained. 'But there was no intended interference – merely the exercise of a right to record what was happening.' In February, Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, signed an agreement between the state and the Department of Homeland Security allowing Florida highway patrol troopers to be trained and approved by Ice to arrest and detain immigrants. While such agreements have been inked across the US, Florida has the largest concentration of these deals. Father Frank O'Loughlin, founder and executive director of the Guatemalan-Maya Center, the advocates for Laynez-Ambrosio, says the incident has further eroded trust between Florida's immigrant community and the police. 'This is a story about the corruption of law enforcement by Maga and the brutality of state and federal troopers – formerly public servants – towards nonviolent people,' he said. Meanwhile, Laynez-Ambrosio is trying to recover from the ordeal, and hopes the footage raises awareness of how immigrants are being treated in the US. 'It didn't need to go down like that. If they knew that my people were undocumented, they could've just kindly taken them out of the car and arrested them,' he said. 'It hurt me bad to see my friends like that. Because they're just good people, trying to earn an honest living.' The Guardian is granting anonymity to Laynez-Ambrosio's mother and the men arrested in the footage to protect their privacy

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