US Congress Black Caucus Ready to Take Mass Action Against Trump's Agenda to Weaken Minorities
JAKARTA - The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and a number of civil rights organizations in the US commemorate Black 'History Month' by relaunching a national plan to mobilize resistance against the efforts of the US President Donald Trump's administration to weaken legal protections for minority communities.
The Congressional Black Caucus is a group of black members of the US Congress. They and civil society leaders gathered and agreed on Tuesday this week to express their anger at President Trump's series of policies since returning to the White House, including Trump's personal behavior, which turned a blind eye to minorities.
"Over the past year, we have seen a coordinated effort to roll back the civil rights that underlie voting access, dismantle social programs, and concentrate power in the hands of the wealthy and powerful, at the expense of our communities," said Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, at a press conference. quoted from AP, Thursday, February 12.
Clarke added that the Caucus pledged to "make laws, organize, and mobilize our community."
Ahead of the press conference, the caucus first held a closed-door meeting to discuss how to protect voters ahead of the fall US midterm elections and how to build a policy agenda for the Democratic Party if the party wins back power in one of the chambers of Congress next year.
"This is a moment where all parties must work together, and every tool available to leadership collectively must be deployed to reverse this situation," said US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries after a press conference.
Jeffries did not rule out mass action, organizing boycotts, and legal action as potential further steps that they might take against the Trump administration's policies due to the human rights inequality experienced by minorities in the US.
This call for legal protection for minority communities in the US comes after the Trump Administration has continued its campaign against diversity, equality, and inclusion across the US Government, even in higher education, and the private sector.
At the beginning of his second term, Trump is known to have signed several executive orders banning what he called the use of "illegal DEI" in government agencies, as well as organizations that interact with the federal government.
DEI stands for Diversity (diversity), Equity (equality), and Inclusion (inclusion), which is the basis of a framework in a fair and respectful work environment.
Trump has threatened to withhold funding from large corporations, nonprofits, and state governments as part of his administration's efforts to thwart DEI.
The Trump administration has also sought to redefine the nation's culture and how history is taught in museums, classrooms and other educational settings.
Under Trump, the US government also prioritized the investigation and prosecution of civil rights violations related to potential discrimination against whites through the Justice Department's civil rights division and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), among other agencies.
Civil society leaders and Democratic lawmakers have filed dozens of lawsuits against the administration's anti-DEI policies.
Because of the loss of power in both chambers of the US Congress, the Democratic Party's authority is limited in oversight or efforts to limit the Trump Administration's actions on this issue.
Meanwhile, civil rights leaders in the US, most of whom have been stymied by the many policy changes over the past year, are trying to regroup ahead of the 2026 US midterm elections.