Statement of Jocelyn Frye, President of the National Partnership for Women & Families
This week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was targeted by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice in an indictment challenging how the organization used its funds for paid informants. The SPLC, founded in 1971, has worked for years to combat hate groups across the country, and protects the civil rights of groups facing discrimination, including women, children, people living with disabilities, people of color and the LGBTQ community.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 22, 2026 – “With each passing day, the Trump administration makes more evident its agenda to rewrite history, normalize racism and sexism, and target people and organizations that fight for civil rights. Its latest tactic – to pursue an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center – is an attack against all those who strive to advance justice and help all people live free from discrimination.
This attempt to recast the work of the SPLC as illegal is as disingenuous as it is dangerous. Dismantling organizations that hold hate groups accountable does not make anyone safer – it emboldens those that would do harm. The administration’s desire to minimize the threat posed by far-right extremists is compounded by the rank hypocrisy of its previous efforts to shield those who engaged in politically motivated violence against our government. Whitewashing violence and extremism, whether by white supremacists, activists targeting abortion clinics or attackers trying to undo an election, sends an unmistakable message that this administration will look the other way and ignore wrongdoing, which puts all of us at risk.
“This legal action is just the latest salvo in this administration’s campaign to eliminate initiatives that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, to roll back workplace protections designed to safeguard groups such as women and people of color, to gut bedrock programs such as Medicaid that millions of families rely upon, and to weaponize federal agencies against the very communities they are supposed to serve. Every one of these actions undermines our nation’s security, stability and commitment to preserving fairness and equality. The American people, all of them, deserve better.”
# # #
Media Contact:
Gail Zuagar
Email
202-986-2600
