>> A local nonprofit supporting women in trade work is suing the Trump administration over executive orders, targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs are Joanna Hernandez met up with the organization to hear how the order is impacting their work.

>> The shop floor buzzes with the sound of heavy machinery, cutting through a metal at the Chicago Women in Trades Training center.

>> When we go through the program, this is a sanctuary.

We learn with each other and it's all women and were being taught by women.

And it's really, really important.

>> Desiree Guzman is a lead welding program coordinator.

She started in the Free Training program almost 7 years ago wanting to work in the manufacturing industry.

>> That's so important for someone to say.

You absolutely can do it and help you remove those barriers.

>> While welding is a male dominated field, there's a growing number of women joining the industry.

>> The nonprofit has helped women like Kuzma and get But now programs like these are in jeopardy because of President Trump's and tidy.

I executive orders.

>> We can't get rid of the progress we have to build on the progress and that's why it's so important to keep fighting.

>> Chicago women in trades is challenging Trump's executive actions on diversity, equity and inclusion by filing a lawsuit in federal court.

The group's executive director Jane Billing, the says the lawsuit was necessary to support an underrepresented part of the workforce.

>> The executive orders seek to undo all of that progress that probably which is not where it needs to be and to stop this momentum.

Cold inserted in race.

All of the efforts of the past many decades to to help women achieve economic equity.

>> The lawsuit challenges to of Trump's executive orders and in government support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

The orders calling dei programs illegal and immoral discrimination.

They are an untenable situation because we have to choose between triggering an executive order living in fear of legal liability or stopping their programs and terminating federal funding altogether.

>> The organization is being represented by a team of civil rights lawyers, including Sabrina, to looked are she says there's confusion as the orders fell to defined or described the types of dei activities or speech that could lead organizations to lose or federal grants or contracts.

>> All with that we are asking is that Chicago women in trays can keep its door open and continue doing the work that they have done for 40 years.

They should not be silenced.

They should not live enough year.

A state of uncertainty and fear about what they can and cannot do.

>> While critics argue D I focuses on prioritizing race and gender rather than skill.

The lingo says this perspective is far from their reality.

>> There is a very misleading narrative going on about dei.

And I think the one thing that I I feel like I need people to understand says these are not quotas.

People are not taking jobs from people.

They are getting an opportunity to apply.

You know, they are getting they are being recruited so that they fill out their applications that go through the process.

Lingus as 40% of the organization's budget relies on federal funding.

>> Money they say goes towards programming in helping women succeed in a workforce where they represent only 5% of Illinois's construction sector while about 70% of their participants identify as black or Latino.

The organization says its mission is to boost equity for all women.

We've been in the trades.

They put up with a lot.

They already work in hostile work environment.

They're already relegated to the police, kill skilled jobs on the site.

>> They already struggle to retain to stay working.

>> And then to say that none of this is to have our federal government saying none of this is true.

You guys have had it easy.

You've taken jobs away from other people.

a disorienting to say the least.

It It is a narrative that has no relationship.

2, I lived experience.

>> For Chicago tonight, I'm Joanna Hernandez.

>> Shortly after a federal judge's decision to temporarily block Trump's executive orders Targeting Dei programs.

Another decision by an appeals court lifted the block.

It allows the administration to enforce its