Protesters rally during the 35th annual Pensacola Earth Day Festival at Bayview Park Sunday, April 19, 2025. The festival showcases sustainable living through environmental education, art, live music, local food, hands-on activities and more.
San Diego, California – Several Southern California environmental groups gathered outside the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego on Tuesday morning to protest the actions of the Trump administration, particularly regarding its environmental policies. The event, dubbed “Hands Off Earth,” was organized to voice opposition to recent cutbacks in environmental protections and programs, which have sparked concerns within the local and national environmental communities.
The protest coincided with a visit by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin, who toured the Tijuana River Valley and the International Wastewater Treatment Plant before holding a press conference. Sara Ochoa, Programs Director with the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation, expressed her concerns over what she described as the “environmental destruction agency” under Zeldin’s leadership. She emphasized the Trump administration’s decision to scale back crucial environmental initiatives, including eliminating a multi-million-dollar grant to the Environmental Health Coalition in San Diego. The intention for this grant was to fund 12 community-driven projects addressing severe air quality issues in some of the region’s most polluted areas.
Ochoa criticized the EPA for rolling back protections on national parks and public lands, particularly in New Mexico, where pristine areas are now at risk of being opened up for mineral extraction. “These resources are worth protecting,” she said. “Instead of being open to the public, they’re going to be turned into mining sites.”
In addition to concerns over national park protections, Ochoa and other protestors raised alarms about the Tijuana River Valley pollution crisis. The river, which has been contaminated for decades with sewage, industrial waste, trash, and toxic chemicals from Mexico, continues to flow into the U.S., affecting local communities. The Transboundary Pollution Coalition for Advocacy and Healing, a coalition of 50 organizations from both sides of the border, issued a statement calling for urgent action to address the pollution.
“We need immediate, commonsense solutions for a healthy Tijuana River,” the statement read, highlighting the ongoing pollution problem that has closed the southernmost beach in San Diego County for over 1,200 consecutive days. The Tijuana River was recently named the second most endangered river in the United States for 2025.
The Trump administration has defended its environmental rollbacks as part of its “great American comeback” strategy, aiming to deregulate industries and stimulate economic growth. Zeldin recently hailed the EPA’s efforts as “the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history.” However, critics argue that these moves come at the expense of public health and environmental preservation.
