President Donald Trump began a total rollback of all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts within the federal government, calling them “illegal and immoral.”

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, all federal workers and contractors who served in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) offices or provided related trainings were placed on paid leave and will soon be laid off.

Trump called the programs discriminatory.

“Our country’s going to be based on merit,” Trump said.

The president’s effort includes every website, social media account, office and potentially worker who made an effort to ensure diversity and equity for protected groups across the government and beyond. According to his order, Trump wants agencies to monitor and report back to the White House if his directive is not followed.

The experts who spoke with the I-Team said the president’s order falsely equates DEI efforts with preference and the selection of unqualified workers. They said that’s a misinterpretation and what DEI efforts instead try to do is make sure all voices are heard and make government serve all communities.

‘The idea behind the DEIA efforts was to reduce barriers to federal opportunities’

Rob Shriver, the immediate past acting director for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) under President Joe Biden, spoke with the News4 I-Team about the goals of DEIA work.

“The idea behind the DEIA efforts was to reduce barriers to federal opportunities for all communities,” he explained.

The current acting director of OPM under Trump sent a memo to department heads on Tuesday ordering them to notify “all employees of DEIA offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately.”

Several hundred to a few thousand workers could be impacted, Shriver said. He believes Americans will feel the loss of these employees.

“What’s lost is a specific emphasis on evaluating barriers that are preventing communities from across the country from accessing the benefits that they need, and that might be a rural community. It might be a community in a small town or in a city,” he said.

Robert Tobias, of American University, is an expert in public policy implementation, including DEIA and programs focused on training the workforce and managers to be more inclusive of all groups. He said he believes Trump’s order goes too far. He said Trump has the right to abolish DEIA programs.

“I don’t think he has the right to punish federal employees by putting them on administrative leave and abolishing their jobs for doing the work they were assigned and doing it well,” Tobias said.

Republican lawmakers said Trump is doing what the American people want.

What’s next for DEIA employees

Trump’s order directs department heads to develop a plan by the end of the month for terminating DEIA employees.

Jacqueline Simon, policy director with AFGE, the largest federal worker labor union, said it’s not clear what will happen to these employees. She said some, but not all, are protected by collective bargaining agreements.

“They may or may not have an opportunity to apply for other federal jobs or be placed in other federal jobs. We really don’t know yet,” Simon said.

News4’s Mark Segraves breaks down the politics behind President Donald Trump’s pardons of two police officers convicted in the death of a D.C. man and the relationship between the Trump and Bowser administrations.