Public servant swept up in Trump's anti-DEI purge says he's shocked and hurt
Jeremy Wood on leave after 23 years with U.S. Department of Agriculture because of diversity work
When Jeremy Wood found out he was being placed on leave from his job at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an email from human resources assured him it was "not being done for any disciplinary purpose."
But the veteran public servant says it sure feels like he's being punished.
Wood is one of several U.S. federal employees across various agencies who have been placed on administrative leave because of their work in diversity, equity and inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) programs, following an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Wood's department shut down its DEIA initiatives in December, before Trump took office, and he was moved into a different role in the Foreign Agricultural Service's office of civil rights. But it wasn't enough to spare him from the purge.
"While it was a bit of a shock that it was actually happening, ultimately, unfortunately, I was kind of expecting something like that," he told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
He's currently still getting his pay and benefits, but he doesn't expect that to last. Trump has directed that all federal DEIA staff be put on paid leave and — eventually — laid off. Wood says some of his colleagues have already met that fate.
"I don't have a lot of hope that, you know, I'm going to be going back to work anytime soon," he said.
The letter notifying Wood that he's been placed on leave is watermarked at the bottom with the words: "An Equal Opportunity Employer."
Civil servants are non-partisan
DEIA — also commonly known as DEI — refers to a set frameworks used in workplaces and schools to promote fair and equitable treatment, especially those who have been historically marginalized because of their race, sexuality, gender or disability.
Trump has long cast DEI as illegal and discriminatory, even going so far as to blame it, without evidence, for last month's deadly mid-air collision of a military chopper and a commercial airplane near Washington, D.C.
During his first days back in office, Trump signed an executive order to end all DEI programs in the federal government.
It's a major shift from the priorities outlined by Democrats under former U.S. president Joe Biden. But Wood says public servants — who are non-partisan — are used to those kinds of changes.
He's been with his department for 23 years across five administrations, both Democrat and Republican.
"There's always priority differences, there's always ways in which you have to adjust, but nothing quite to this degree as far as even the possibility of losing my job," he said.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which is handling the administrative leaves, did not comment on Wood's case specifically. But when asked for comment, it pointed CBC to an internal memo asking federal agency heads to notify "all employees of DEIA offices" that they are on leave "effective immediately."
The memo includes a template letter for agency heads to send to all employees, which claims that DEI programs have "divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination."
It further states that the agency is "aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language," and calls on civil servants to report all such attempts within 10 days or face "adverse consequences."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not respond to a request for comment.
It's not clear how many civil servants have received these notices so far, but Wood says he's already heard from several colleagues in the same boat as him.
NBC News reported this week at least 55 workers at the U.S. Department of Education, all of whom attended a diversity training course, have been placed on leave. Trump also vowed this week to defund the department.
The Partnership for Public Service, a non-profit organization that advocates for public servants, decried both the shuttering of DEI initiatives and purge of federal employees.
Michelle Amante, the organization's senior vice-president of programs, said in a press release that it is "supremely unfair and wrong to penalize career civil servants for following the lawful direction of their politically appointed superiors."
'Taxpayer-funded racism' vs 'creating a level playing field'
Some private companies are following Trump's lead. Meta and Amazon, whose CEOs attended Trump's inauguration, have begun to wind down their own DEI initiatives.
Pro-Trump and conservative groups have also welcomed the moves, saying DEI policies work to perpetuate discrimination rather than break through it.
Trump, through his executive orders, is "ending decades of taxpayer-funded racism in America," said Dan Lennington, deputy counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, an advocacy group that has fought DEI efforts in the federal government.
"Unfortunately, these ubiquitous DEI programs and practices are rooted deep in Washington and around the country," he added. "The real work has just begun."
But Wood says people have a fundamental misunderstanding of what DEI means.
It's not about "a preference of any kind of one group of individuals over another," he says. Nor does it result in "hiring unqualified individuals for a job for the sake of any kind of identity."
"It's really about creating a level playing field for everyone," he said.
Wood says when he worked on DEI initiatives, he was simply doing his job as instructed. But he says he's proud of that work and stands by it.
"The opportunities that I've had to work in service to the American people in agriculture, in addition to, you know, the passions I have for equality and social justice and ensuring that folks have equal opportunity to do the same thing that I'm doing, is very important to me," he said.
"The perception [that] work that I've put so much of my time and effort into is in any way, you know, kind of shameful or discriminatory, is hurtful and makes me sad."
With files from Reuters. Interview with Jeremy Wood produced by Leslie Amminson
