January, 28 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Interior Department Attempts to Ram Through Rules Change Stifling Public Information Requests
Effort, spearheaded by former Koch operative Jorjani and ex-lobbyist Bernhardt, would limit public access to records pertaining to Interior’s dangerous actions
WASHINGTON
The U.S. Department of the Interior advanced a proposal to restrict Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from the public in a clear attempt to benefit dirty energy and anti-public lands industry lobbyists and their allies seeking to extract policy changes from the Trump administration. Earthjustice, the nation's leading environmental law organization, joined a letter with over 100 organizations across the country on a letter opposing the effort.
The move follows Interior's announcement that it was only extending the public comment period on the rollback by one day due to the government shutdown. Bernhardt's associate during his time at Interior during the Bush administration and former Koch Foundation strategist, Daniel Jorjani, quietly advanced the plan while tens of thousands of department employees nationwide worked without pay during the government shutdown
The following is a statement from Yvonne Chi, an attorney at Earthjustice's Rocky Mountain office:
"Interior's move is a clear threat to the principles of transparency and accountability at the heart of our democracy. It is obvious that industry's hand-picked representatives running the show at the Interior Department will stop at nothing to prevent the public from getting access to real information about their dealings. Earthjustice will use every tool available to us to stop this dangerous attack and protect our right to the information we need to protect our planet and its people."
Freedom of Information Act Requests: Protecting the Public's Right to Hold Government Accountable
- Earthjustice discovered through FOIA records that locations of uranium mining claims informed the Trump administration's decision on where to draw new boundaries for the Bears Ears National Monument: the new boundaries conveniently excluded areas where claims have been located or areas with significant uranium potential. In addition, it was uncovered that the administration met with representatives from uranium companies prior to the drawing of the new boundaries.
- FOIA requests played a key role in identifying the rampant misuse of taxpayer dollars under former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke.
- FOIA records showed that administration officials dismissed the importance of national monuments highlighted from public feedback gathered during the comment period and moved ahead with monuments reductions anyway.
- Advocates in the Appalachian region used FOIA to confirm that the Department of the Interior had no real reason to cancel an important National Academy of Sciences looking into the health effects of mountaintop removal mining.
- Earthjustice is currently making use of FOIA to determine if the administration adequately investigated the potential presence of toxic substances near its immigrant detention centers within military bases and whether it violated pivotal health and safety requirements in the process.
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
800-584-6460LATEST NEWS
Canada Vows Aid for Cuba as Trump Oil Embargo Fuels Humanitarian Disaster
Mexico earlier this month also stepped up aid shipments to Cuba during the Trump administration's oil embargo.
Feb 24, 2026
The Canadian government on Monday announced plans to send aid to Cuba, which is currently being squeezed economically by a US oil embargo.
As reported by the Associated Press, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand revealed that the government is "preparing a plan to assist," adding that "we are not prepared at this point to provide any details" of what it will entail.
A Canadian aid package to Cuba would be the latest rebuff to US foreign policy. The two long-time allies have been at odds since President Donald Trump took office last year and slapped hefty tariffs on Canadian products, while also vowing to make the country into the "51st state" of the US.
Canada wouldn't be the first US ally to step up help for Cuba, as Mexico earlier this month sent two ships loaded with more than 2,000 tons of goods and food to the island nation.
The shipments to Cuba were aimed at easing the humanitarian crisis intensified by the Trump administration's oil embargo, which began shortly after the administration invaded Venezuela and abducted President Nicolás Maduro in January.
Trump has vowed to slap tariffs on any country that sends oil to Cuba, although the US Supreme Court's ruling last week slapping down his powers to unilaterally enact tariffs through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act has potentially neutered that threat.
Earlier this month, a group of United Nations human rights experts called the Trump blockade of Cuba "a serious violation of international law and a grave threat to a democratic and equitable international order," and "an extreme form of unilateral economic coercion with extraterritorial effects."
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group CodePink, traveled to Cuba recently and spoke to local residents who described the devastating impact of the oil blockade.
"With no gasoline, buses don’t run, so we can’t get to work," Marta Jiménez, a hairdresser from Holguín, told Benjamin. "We have electricity only three to six hours a day. There’s no gas for cooking, so we’re burning wood and charcoal in our apartments. It’s like going back 100 years."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Massachusetts Town Passes Resolution Urging State to Hold 'Lawless' ICE Agents Accountable
"I hope Amherst’s resolution kicks off a wave of similar resolutions in cities and towns across the state," said the measure's lead sponsor.
Feb 24, 2026
The town council of Amherst, Massachusetts passed a resolution on Monday urging state and local officials to hold federal immigration agents accountable for violating the Commonwealth's laws, a move that advocates hailed as a model for lawmakers across the United States.
The resolution—which says agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have "repeatedly committed acts of violence against Massachusetts residents"—passed with unanimous support from the nine councilors who participated in the vote.
"ICE’s illegal operations have impacted residents of Amherst and surrounding communities directly, and we know that when any of our neighbors have their rights stripped away, none of us can take those rights for granted," Councilor Jill Brevik, the resolution's lead sponsor, said in a statement following the vote. "Silence and complying in advance created the environment that has enabled ICE agents to commit crimes and human rights abuses."
"As a result, it is critically important for our local and state-level leaders to speak loudly and take clear action to fight back and change course," Brevik added. "The work doesn’t end here, and I look forward to staying engaged. And I hope Amherst’s resolution kicks off a wave of similar resolutions in cities and towns across the state."
The resolution calls on Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, to "immediately cease all cooperation agreements with ICE," pointing to specific actions by federal immigration agents that "may be crimes under Massachusetts law, including but not limited to assault and battery, kidnapping, violation of constitutional rights, and assault and battery for the purpose of intimidation, and conspiracy, which may involve senior federal officials" including President Donald Trump.
Among the incidents highlighted by the resolution is ICE's 2025 abduction of Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was targeted for deportation for writing an op-ed criticizing the US-backed Israeli assault on Gaza. Last month, an immigration judge terminated removal proceedings against Öztürk.
The resolution also condemns ICE and CBP agents for "illegally kidnapping an 18-year old with no warrant and detaining him for a week with no access to showers or sufficient food in Worcester County; illegally kidnapping and assaulting a lawful permanent resident in Essex County, stealing his belongings, and threatening his legal status; assaulting a resident of Middlesex County, smashing his car’s windows and dragging him from it; detaining a first-year college student at Boston Logan Airport and forcing her out of the country in defiance of a court order; and repeatedly using unlawfully excessive force in encounters with Massachusetts resident."
“When our constitutional rights, our civil liberties, and our very lives come under attack by Trump’s lawless agents, we need every public official to stand with the people to fight back,” Jeff Conant, an Amherst resident who helped organize support for the newly approved measure, said Monday. “This commonsense resolution by our town council should serve as a model for every town and city in the Commonwealth and across the nation.”
The resolution demands that state and local officials "take affirmative steps to protect" Massachusetts residents, including by:
- Making a public statement confirming the principles that federal officials and agents are subject to state criminal jurisdiction;
- Taking affirmative steps to collect evidence of criminal acts committed by federal agents, including through the creation and dissemination of an accessible online tool for citizens to submit evidence; and
- Issuing guidelines to local law enforcement to preserve evidence, especially in cases of federal noncooperation with investigations, and beginning investigations where evidence indicates that a crime has been committed, regardless of the power or prestige of the federal officeholder who is suspected of committing said crime.
John Bonifaz, constitutional attorney and president of Free Speech For People—an advocacy group that helped draft the resolution—said that "state and local prosecutors in Massachusetts and across the country have a sworn duty to enforce state criminal laws against federal agents who commit crimes in their states."
"There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal ICE agents. While the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution allows federal agents to carry out their lawful duties across the country, they do not have immunity to commit murder, to kidnap, to commit assault and battery, and to engage in illegal detentions," he continued. "Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and district attorneys across Massachusetts must enforce state criminal laws against ICE agents for their unlawful actions in this state."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Do Not Get Numb to This': Trump Admin Kills 3 More People in Caribbean
"The illegality is compounding," said one expert. "Every strike takes us farther from the rule of law."
Feb 24, 2026
The ramp-up of deadly boat bombings in the Caribbean since General Francis L. Donovan took over as head of US Southern Command continued on Monday, with three more people killed in a strike on a vessel that the Department of Defense claimed was operated by "Designated Terrorist Organizations."
Donovan took over as commander of US Southern Command on February 5 following the abrupt retirement of Admiral Alvin Hosley, who had reportedly raised concerns about the Pentagon's campaign of striking boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean—a policy that Trump administration officials have insisted is aimed at stopping drug trafficking from Venezuela.
Venezuela plays virtually no role in the trafficking of fentanyl, the drug involved in most overdoses in the US, and the administration has provided no evidence that the dozens of strikes it's carried out since September have actually been aimed at drug trafficking boats.
Even if the targets were involved in transporting illicit substances to the US, legal experts say the strikes have violated international law.
Following the attack on Monday, the death toll in the Trump administration's maritime operations in the region since September has reached at least 150, and Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America emphasized that this month, there has been a clear acceleration of boat bombings.
Twenty-five people have been killed in the administration's boat attacks in just 19 days.
"None posed imminent threats," said Isacson. "None faced more than an accusation of guilt for a non-capital crime—'take our word for it.' The illegality is compounding. Every strike takes us farther from the rule of law."
"Do not get numb to this," he added.
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Southern Command's killing of three people Monday amounted to "more summary executions."
On Sunday, after another strike that killed three people, the Freedom of the Press Foundation noted that "despite the rising death toll, the government’s legal rationale for these likely illegal attacks remains secret."
"By keeping the legal justifications hidden, the government is sidestepping accountability for what appear to be extrajudicial killings," said Lauren Harper, the group's Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy.
President Donald Trump told Congress in October that the US is in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels. At the time, Gregory Corn, a former senior adviser for law-of-war issues for the US Army, said the president was crossing a "major legal line."
The boat bombing campaign led up to the US government's invasion of Venezuela in January and its abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who were brought to the US and charged with drug trafficking. They pleaded not guilty in court last month. Since that military operation, the Trump administration has sought to take control of Venezuela's oil.
Both Democratic and Republican members of Congress have spoken out against the boat bombings and have introduced war powers resolutions to stop the US from continuing the campaign and from attacking Venezuela, but so far, the vast majority of GOP lawmakers have voted down the efforts.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular