USA - On the eve of the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the White House issued an order to return to the bad old days of warehousing people with mental health and intellectual and developmental disabilities, people with substance abuse disorders, and anyone who has fallen through the cracks of our increasingly crack-ridden society, in jails, psychiatric institutions, and potentially even Federal detainment. 

Yesterday’s Executive Order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” is a grim statement of purpose from the current administration, accelerating a bleak and cruel vision of “Law & Order.” Its sweeping intent is clear—to further target and criminalize poor and disabled people, to severely reallocate funding away from programs that have proven effective in helping people to transition out of crisis and onto better outcomes, and to lock them up. 

Specifically, the White House has ordered Federal agencies to:

• Maximize (and employ “Maximally Flexible”) use of civil commitment, institutionalization, and forced treatment;
• Expand law enforcement and court power over people with mental health disabilities, including reallocating resources to expand mental health and drug courts;
• Increase displacement and criminal punishment of people who are left with no choice but to sleep outside; and
• Withhold funding from programs and jurisdictions that don’t follow the Executive Order’s draconian conditions.

This order explicitly calls for the unraveling of decades of established civil rights protections for people with disabilities, including the 1999 Olmstead v. L.C. (Lois Curtis) Supreme Court ruling that requires states to end unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities and instead to provide supportive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to peoples’ needs. 

It also directs Federal agencies take funding away from programs that use Housing First and harm reduction—two models of service delivery that are definitively proven to reduce homelessness while honoring the right to self-determination of all people. Instead of providing housing and supports to people in need, the Trump administration directs states and local governments to weaponize their resources to drive unhoused people into locked institutions against their will. As the order suggests, "Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings.”

We at DRC lament that these policies echo what we have been opposing here in our own state. California policymakers, led by Gov. Newsom, continue to react to very real problems with policies that ignore root causes and instead focus on clearing from public view and locking up people with disabilities, people in poverty, and any found “undesirable.” These include the CARE Act, SB 43, Prop 1, and the current bills still adding on to this terrible direction, all of which DRC have opposed totally. These policies have no proven effectiveness and they only cause harm to people with disabilities, compound harm to people in crisis, and create disability in those impacted. Black, brown, Indigenous, immigrant, 2SLGBTQIA+, and multiply impacted communities with disabilities will be especially harmed by these policies with increased likelihood of unnecessary arrest and incarceration, institutionalization, physical harm, and death.

Following right on the heels of this administration’s historic gutting of Medicaid, and alongside the egregious dissolution of civil rights and due process in the current mass raids and arrests by ICE, this order makes clear the priorities and the future they are steering toward—one in which the programs that have been most effective in providing care and stability are eliminated and the most vulnerable of our friends, family and neighbors are disposed of in jails, psychiatric hospitals, and detention centers. 

DRC remains steadfast in fighting against policies that scapegoat and punish people with disabilities for the systemwide failures of our nation’s housing and mental health systems. We urge Californians to join us in opposing these harmful proposals.

Media Contact

Sam Mickens
Director of Communications
(646) 945-0918
Sam.Mickens@disabilityrightsca.org

Disability Rights California (DRC) – Is the agency designated under federal law to protect and advocate for the rights of Californians with disabilities. The mission of DRC is to defend, advance, and strengthen the rights and opportunities of people with disabilities. For more information visit: https://www.disabilityrightsca.org.