The Battle Ahead: Latino Civil Rights vs. Project 2025
Prepared by Adriana Varea, Ari Kittrie, and Joaquin Macias, LULAC Policy and Legislation Fellows
Introduction
The 2025 Mandate for Leadership, The Conservative Promise, more publicly recognized as “Project 2025” is a roadmap for the first 180 days in office for a conservative presidency. It was drafted by The Heritage Foundation, which is a right-leaning, conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. charged with crafting policies that align with the Republican party. The Heritage Foundation gave the first Mandate for Leadership to Reagan to “repair the executive branch” after Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
Former President Trump has recently distanced himself from Project 2025 by tweeting:
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.” (@realDonaldTrump)
However, this was refuted by a 2022 statement from former President Trump:
“[The Heritage Foundation] is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.” (Bennen, 2024)
Additionally, several authors, editors, and contributors of Project 2025 have previously worked for the Trump administration. Roughly 64% of policy recommendations from the 2016 Mandate for Leadership were either implemented or taken into consideration by the Trump Administration in 2017 (The Heritage Foundation).
In this article, we will outline ten specific ways in which Project 2025 disproportionately negatively impacts Latino civil rights.
1. Establish a Unitary Executive Branch
“The modern conservative President’s task is to limit, control, and direct the executive branch. This challenge is created and exacerbated by [...] the inability to hold career civil servants accountable for their performance.” (Project 2025, pg. 43)
Project 2025 proposes giving the president more power in the Executive Branch by reclassifying civil servants as political appointments (pg. 43). The main difference between the two is that political appointees can be more easily fired by the president than civil servants. This means the president will have the authority to remove any federal employee with ease. One of the roles of civil servants is to provide support for people using public services. Should this role become partisan, support will not be equally distributed, and the gap between people of color and white people will increase even more than it already is. This role will impact departments like the U.S. Census, which will contribute to the misrepresentation faced by Latinos in the U.S. For example, Project 2025 hopes to incorporate a citizenship question into the US Census, and also reform the Office of Management and Budget “Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity” (pg. 680).
2. Mass Deportations
“Prioritizing border security and immigration enforcement, including detention and deportation, is critical if we are to regain control of the border.” (Project 2025, pg. 135)
Project 2025 plans to repeal parts of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to allow for the large-scale use of detention facilities to mass incarcerate migrants. It also will change Title 8 of U.S. Code § 1226 to require mandatory detention for unauthorized migrants caught within the U.S. interior (pg. 150). To compound this, Project 2025 will also increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) capabilities by removing all sensitive zones where ICE personnel are prohibited from operating, allowing for raids in schools, churches, and businesses (pg. 142).
Project 2025 calls to authorize state and local law enforcement to participate in immigration and border security actions (pg. 150). Through deputizing local law enforcement, there will be a lack of oversight and accountability, allowing for abuses of the system that would disproportionately hurt the Latino community. Additionally, Latinos would have a more difficult time receiving impartial hearings and legal representation, especially because detainees are not entitled to public defenders as criminal defendants are. To compound upon this, the Supreme Court Case Loper Bright Entreprises vs. Raimondo, which repealed the Chevron Deference, has the potential to take immigration hearings away from the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services and shift them to the local courts. These local courts notoriously have long backlogs and a limited understanding of immigration policies and laws, which would force Latinos to have long and unjust trials.
3. Cutting Off Legal Immigration
“Victimization should not be a basis for an immigration benefit.” (pg. 144) “If CISOMB continues as a DHS component, a policy should be issued that prohibits CISOMB from assisting illegal aliens to obtain benefits. Currently, approximately 15 percent–20 percent of CISOMB’s workload consists of helping DACA applicants obtain and renew benefits, including work authorization. This is not the role of an ombudsman.” (Project 2025, pg. 166)
Project 2025 proposes to cut down on legal immigration by limiting interim immigration into the United States. For example, it calls for an increase in visa application fees. It plans to limit the issuance of H-2A and H2-B visas for seasonal agricultural workers, as well as the complete elimination of T and U visas meant to protect trafficking or crime victims who are actively cooperating with law enforcement as a witness (pg. 612, 141). Project 2025 calls to remove and deport all Temporary Status designations for migrants whose home countries are considered unsafe to live in (pg. 145). Finally, Project 2025 will phase out DACA for the over 500,000 recipients by eliminating staff time for reviewing and processing renewal applications which will make it very hard for DACA recipients to renew their status given the proposed lack of staff present to do so (pg.145).
4. Making Federal Funding & Benefits Contingent on Immigration Laws
“All applicants and potential recipients of such grant funding should be required to meet certain preconditions for eligibility [...] or should simply be considered ineligible for funding.” (Project 2025, pg. 138)
Project 2025 will require that applicants for Federal Emergency Management Agency grants honor all aspects of federal immigration law (pg. 137-138). It will also mandate that employers use E-Verify, a web-based system letting employers confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the US (pg. 149). Because E-Verify is not routinely updated, it would leave legal immigrants whose paperwork is under review to be classified as undocumented and treated as such. Project 2025 will prohibit noncitizens, including mixed-status families, from living in all federally assisted housing (pg. 509). Finally, it will deny student loan access to students at schools that provide in-state tuition to individuals who lack immigration status (pg. 167).
Similarly, under the Department of Homeland Security, Project 2025 calls for “immediately ending CISA’s counter-mis/disinformation efforts,” which would promote propaganda targeting Latinos as PBS reported that the Latino community is the most vulnerable for mis/disinformation (pg. 155).
5. Criminalization of Reproductive Rights
“From the moment of conception, every human being possesses inherent dignity and worth, and our humanity does not depend on our age, stage of development, race, or abilities. The Secretary must ensure that all HHS programs and activities are rooted in a deep respect for innocent human life from day one until natural death: Abortion and euthanasia are not health care.” (Project 2025, pg. 450)
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2022 approximately 18% of Latinos do not have health insurance, and those who do are often underinsured. Women’s clinics are often the only entry-point to health care that Latinas are able or willing to utilize. CDC reports that Latinas had the second highest abortion rate in 2021 at 12.3%, trailing behind Black women at 28.6%. Restrictions on abortions would negatively hurt women of color more so than their white counterparts, but especially Latinas who have a greater population within child-bearing years and on average younger are than other demographics. This makes them more at risk than other racial or ethnic groups.
Project 2025 plans to have the FDA reverse its approval of chemical abortion drugs such as mifepristone and make it illegal to mail abortion medication (pg. 485). This would restrict the use and distribution of abortion medication. It also calls for the institution of a National Abortion Database that would require states to report how many abortions occur, when and what time, gestational age of the child, mother’s state of residence, and by what method (pg. 455). Project 2025 plans to restore the ethics advisory committee to oversee abortion-derived fetal tissue research, resulting in an eventual ban on research using fetal tissue (pg. 461). Finally, Project 2025 will withdraw up to 10% of Medicaid funds from states that require private insurance policies to cover abortions (pg. 472).
6. Dismantle the U.S. Department of Education
“For the sake of American children, Congress should shutter it and return control of education to the states. Short of this, the Secretary of Education should insist that the department serve parents and American ideals…” (Project 2025, pg. 285-286)
Project 2025 plans to give states total control of school curriculum, allowing them to teach alternative and backwards history of a “color-blind” America, thus eradicating the history and contributions of Latinos in the US (pg. 285-286). Additionally, it calls to restore student loans to the private sector, which disproportionately impacts the Latino community as Latinos have the second highest rate of student loan debt. This would prevent future student loan forgiveness and end income-driven repayment plans in the name of offering more competitive student loans (pg. 320).
7. Social Program Cuts and “Reforms”
“The next Administration should: Re-implement work requirements. l Reform broad-based categorical eligibility. Re-evaluate the Thrifty Food Plan. Eliminate the heat-and-eat loophole.” (Project 2025, pg. 300-301)
27% of SNAP recipients are Latino, and Project 2025 calls to increase SNAP requirements by re-implementing work requirements, eliminating categorical eligibility, and disregarding other expenses when determining eligibility for SNAP (pg. 299). Through creating harsher work requirements, Latinos, who traditionally work in unstable careers like agriculture and construction, would negatively feel the effect of these changes more so than other demographics. Additionally, eliminating categorical eligibility would make the process to apply for SNAPs more difficult to navigate.
Project 2025 plans to reduce the budget of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, including the elimination of the Head Start program as it reads “Head Start, originally established and funded to support low-income families, is fraught with scandal and abuse” (pg.476, 482). Latinos make up 37.3% of TANF recipients, as well as 37% of Head Start kids are Latino.
Project 2024 plans to eliminate the Community Eligibility Provision to bar millions of children from receiving free meals (pg. 302-303). It also calls to re-evaluate the Thrifty Food Plan, which would reverse Biden’s budget increases thereby drastically reducing SNAP benefit amounts (pg. 300).
8. Repeal Vital Protections for Latino-Dominated Industries
“Agencies should [...] base federal procurement decisions on the contractors that can deliver the best product at the lowest cost. Congress should [...] allow markets to determine market wages.” (Project 2025, pg. 604)
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Latinos make up the majority percentage of positions that are classified as “outdoor labor,” which means that a lack of protections would physically harm the community. Project 2025 calls for the repeal of the Federal Sugar Program, which subsidizes domestic sugar production and removes protections for laborers from foreign producers. This could domino into ending subsidies for other crops, like tobacco, maize, or cotton which affects Latinos more so than other communities (pg. 296). It also plans to end the Project Labor Agreement, which will decrease diversity and support for equitable workforce development and disregard worker health and safety on the job in the construction industry (pg. 604). Finally, Project 2025 will repeal the Davis-Bacon Act, which is an attack on unionized labor as it enables wage reductions and exploitation within the construction industry (pg. 604).
9. Refocus Environmental Policy Away from Climate Change
“EPA’s structure and mission should be greatly circumscribed to reflect the principles of cooperative federalism and limited government. This will require significant restructuring and streamlining of the agency...” (Project 2025, pg. 420)
By restructuring and limiting the scope of the EPA, the government’s ability to combat climate change and pollution would be greatly restricted. Project 2025 wants to shrink the role and power of the Environmental Protection Agency, eliminate its “superfluous” programs, and give states more control of their environmental policy (pg. 420). The EPA would be run by political personnel, which allows for personal bias and alliance to a political party to impact the guidance and regulations upheld by the EPA.
Project 2025 calls for the dismantling of agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service. This will force the privatization of weather services and prevent the outdoor labor force from being prepared for their work. It will stop the war on oil & gas by removing prohibitions on oil drilling, funding major natural gas pipelines, funding oil pipelines to promote American energy dominance (pg. 365). Project 2025 calls to dismantle the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in favor of private insurance. This will make it harder for Latino homeowners, especially in cities like Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles to afford insurance and further increase the homeownership gap (pg. 154).
10. End Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives
“Family policies and programs under President Biden’s HHS are fraught with agenda items focusing on “LGBTQ+ equity,” subsidizing single-motherhood, disincentivizing work, and penalizing marriage. These policies should be repealed and replaced by policies that support the formation of stable, married, nuclear families.” (Project 2025, pg. 451)
Project 2025 calls for the abolition of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which would disproportionately negatively impact the Latino community through creating greater barriers to entry in spaces of education, the workforce, and other areas needed for economic prosperity (pg. 258). Additionally, this will cause civil rights issues to be addressed through litigation, rather than on an administrative level. It will make adjustments to Title IX to remove protections set in place by the Biden Administration to protect LGBTQ+ individuals from discrimination in education spaces (pg. 33). Finally, Project 2025 will refocus on the “nuclear family”- a family consisting of a married mother and father and their biological children- by repealing policies focused on LGBTQ+ equity, subsidizing single parents, and that penalize the institution of marriage (pg. 451).