Insights

Washington – April 12, 2023: Shennie Patel, a former U.S. Department of Justice enforcement and investigations attorney, has joined Crowell & Moring as senior counsel in the Environment & Natural Resources Group, where she will lead large-scale, complex environmental enforcement defense matters.

On December 8, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in State of New York v. Trump held unlawful and vacated the U.S. Department of the Interior’s “Wind Order” implementing President Trump’s January 20, 2025, “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf From Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects,” 90 Fed. Reg. 8363 (Wind Memo, discussed further in a prior alert). This lawsuit, brought by a coalition of states with Alliance for Clean Energy New York intervening on their behalf, challenges Interior’s implementation, through the Wind Order, of the Wind Memo’s direction to pause processing permits and other approvals necessary to onshore and offshore wind energy development. Notably, the lawsuit does not challenge the other element of the Wind Memo, which withdrew unleased offshore areas from future leasing under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA). (Note, even though the Wind Order indicates its effect is temporary, the Wind Memo instructs relevant agencies not to advance wind development projects until a “comprehensive assessment” is completed, and the district court’s order confirms that the affected agencies had no plans to restart permitting activities until that assessment was complete.)

Imagine a typical morning at your retail store, hospital, or hotel—customers are arriving, staff are busy, and suddenly, federal agents from ICE appear at your front desk. The surprise is real, but panic does not have to be. Unannounced inspections conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inspectors have been occurring for years, but in recent months, ICE has ramped up inspection visits across the service sector, targeting I-9 compliance and employment records. These visits are not always dramatic raids; more often, they are routine checks that can escalate if your team is not prepared.

E&E News reported that EPA will continue to operate during the shutdown relying on “carryover funds.” Carryover funds generally are unspent and unobligated funds from a previous budget period that are carried forward to cover allowable costs in a future budget period. There is no indication how long EPA’s carryover funds will allow all EPA employees to continue working versus those that are “exempted” or “excepted” personnel, meaning they can continue to work either because they are separately funded (“exempted) or must continue to work because of their position (“excepted), such as emergency responders or criminal agents.

This publication is the first of its kind and serves as a guide for wildlife crimes law enforcement around the world who handle the confiscation and care of live wildlife seized from trafficking/smuggling operations. Shennie Patel provided her expertise in trafficking law enforcement and provided valuable feedback on the draft version in identifying gaps and providing useful guidance to refine this publication in the areas covering the law enforcement and criminal and civil seizure.