Testimony from an 82-year-old Altadena resident whose home burned down in the Eaton wildfire helped win a reprieve last week in a lawsuit filed to prevent the Trump Administration’s draconian effort to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Juanita West-Tillman’s story was among the evidence of “irreparable harm” that persuaded U.S. District Judge Amy Berman-Jackson to issue a March 27 preliminary injunction blocking a Trump Administration order to shut the CFPB, just as the agency was ramping up to protect consumers from the horde of financial fraudsters that descended on Altadena to exploit vulnerable Eaton Fire victims.
Congress created the CFPB after the 2008 subprime mortgage market collapse that wiped out $10 trillion in US household wealth and cost millions of Americans their jobs, homes, and retirements. Funded entirely by civil fines rather than taxpayer dollars, it regulates financial firms’ services under federal consumer laws, including those offered by banks, mortgage companies, payday lenders, digital payment apps and debt collectors.
Since its creation, the CFPB has returned over $21 billion improperly taken from over 200 million consumers.
West-Tillman, a 30-year Pasadena elementary school teacher, realtor and former Secretary of the Pasadena branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said during the Eaton fire, she, her daughter and other local NAACP members “lost everything…including my house and all my possessions.”
The house “held countless memories and served as a hub of community and family life. From cherished gatherings to civic fundraisers, Juanita’s home was a vibrant cornerstone of the Altadena community,” according to the GoFundMe page her family established.
In her testimony, West-Tillman said after the fire, “there were numerous financial scams and predatory schemes targeted at fire victims—fraudulent loans, loans with illegal terms, mortgage scams.” She and other NAACP members “had a difficult time determining what assistance was legitimate and what was fraudulent.”
“I was intending to take advantage of and rely on such assistance. But the CFPB abruptly stopped offering it. Without the CFPB, I and other NAACP members who are victims of the Altadena fire will be unable to recover money lost to financial predators.”
Furthermore, the court noted, the closure caused NAACP “to cancel planned trainings and programs and halted direct support [CFPB] staff were giving to NAACP members” to help them avoid unscrupulous criminals preying on fire victims.
The NAACP is among the union and consumer groups that filed the case.
CFPB acting director Russel Vought’s Feb. 10 order to employees told them to halt all work. The agency acted to fire all probationary employees without cause, cut funding, terminate contracts, and close agency offices. It dropped dozens of pending enforcement cases, including against operators of Zelle and others against lenders who cheated military families.
That same week, Trump said the CFPB “was a very important thing to get rid of,” while Elon Musk simply wrote, “CFPB RIP.” The order came only days after Musk’s X announced a partnership with VISA to add a “digital wallet” service similar to the kind of activity subject to CFPB supervision.
Judge Berman-Jackson’s 112-page ruling said the Trump Administration’s actions “were taken in complete disregard for the decision Congress made” when it created the CFPB under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
