On August 5, 2025, the U.S. District Court for Hawai‘i blocked the U.S. President’s executive order that sought to open the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to industrial fishing. In response, Maite Arce, president and CEO of Hispanic Access Foundation, issued the following statement:

“The decision to maintain current protections for the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument is a victory for all communities that depend on a healthy ocean, including Latino communities. The executive order would have rolled back protections from 200 nautical miles to just 50, exposing 408,000 square miles of one of the last wild, healthy ocean ecosystems on Earth.

“Latinos have a deep connection to the ocean through history, culture, and food. For Latinos, protecting the ocean is about honoring our values of stewardship, responsibility, and well-being for our families and future generations. Scaling back protections and allowing industrial fishing in this national monument would not only endanger whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, seabirds, and fragile coral ecosystems, but it would also harm the long-term sustainability of nearby fisheries, as marine national monuments are essential to allow fish populations to recover, ensuring these marine resources remain available to communities in the future. Short-term extraction of resources should never come at the expense of sustainability. 

“We strongly support the preservation of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. Protecting these waters ensures the survival of unique ecosystems, strengthens coastal resilience against climate change, and safeguards the cultural and food traditions that Latino and Pacific Islander communities hold dear.”

The Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument was established on January 6, 2009, by President George W. Bush under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906 and expanded to its current size on September 25, 2014, by President Barack Obama. Encompassing islands, atolls, and reefs in the central Pacific, the monument is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world.