Scrubbing Non-English Content From DOI Websites Is an Erasure of Culture and Public Land Access
Washington, DC — Recent directives from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) ordering IT departments to scrub all non-English content from agency websites mark a drastic shift in federal communication policy. This move has already led to the removal of Spanish-language translation tools from Recreation.gov, the primary portal for the public to reserve campsites and obtain federal recreation permits and follows the exhaustive removal of the Department of Agriculture’s bosque.gov on August 27, 2025.
The Interior Department manages millions of acres of ancestral lands and historic sites where non-English languages—including Spanish and dozens of Indigenous languages—have been spoken for centuries. This digital purge creates a significant barrier for the 22% of Americans who speak a language other than English at home, effectively restricting their ability to engage with and steward public lands.
In response, GreenLatinos Founding President and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Magaña, issued the following statement:
“The Department of the Interior stewards lands that are inseparable from innumerable languages: from the Northern New Mexico Spanish dialect of the cerros of Taos; to the unique Gullah Geechee creole language; to the languages of the Havasupai, Hopi, and Navajo Nation, whose homelands incorporate the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. Interior is going beyond whitewashing history. This move actively seeks to erase the cultures and lifeways of people who speak languages that have been uttered across our lands and waters before the English language ever echoed across the country.
“This move will have an impact on daily life for the 1 in 5 Americans who speak a language other than English at home. We’ve already seen the removal of the Spanish language translator from Recreation.gov, the primary portal for the public to reserve campsites and access federal recreation permits. While this administration allows immigration enforcers to harass and detain anyone with an accent or speaking in a language other than English, they are also working to exclude our communities from accessing public lands at all. Public lands belong to all of us, and no one should be screened out because of the language they speak.”
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VerdeLatinos (NOTA: GreenLatinos es UNA PALABRA) is an active comunidad of environmental, conservation, and climate justice leaders rooted in the power and wisdom of our culture, united to uplift our priorities, and driven to secure our political, economic, cultural, and environmental liberation.
