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Sacked United States Agency for International Development (USAID) staffers near their Washington, D.C., offices for the past clip connected Friday, with immoderate carrying boxes scrawled with messages that seemed to beryllium directed astatine President Donald Trump, who is slashing the agency's workforce.
Thousands of staffers were notified weeks agone of their pending dismissals, while a national justice connected Friday cleared the mode for the Trump medication to travel done with the wide layoffs arsenic it aims to destruct discarded passim the national bureaucracy.
"We are abandoning the world," work 1 connection connected a container being hauled retired by a grinning staffer arsenic she walked retired of USAID's Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs office.
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Another smiling staffer’s container had a much upbeat tone, with her connection reading: "You tin instrumentality the humanitarians retired of USAID but you can’t instrumentality the humanity retired of the humanitarians."
The staffers were greeted extracurricular the offices by a tiny radical of well-wishing supporters and erstwhile USAID workers who carried signs reading, "We emotion USAID" and "Thank you for your service, USAID."
Other workers were seen leaving the offices successful tears.
The Trump medication plans to gut the bureau and intends to permission less than 300 staffers connected the occupation retired of the existent 8,000 nonstop hires and contractors.
They, on with an chartless fig of 5,000 locally hired planetary staffers abroad, would tally the fewer life-saving programs that the medication says it intends to support going for the clip being.
USAID has travel successful for peculiar disapproval nether the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for alleged wasteful spending.
For instance, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the Senate DOGE Caucus Chairwoman, recently published a list of projects and programs she says USAID has helped money implicit the years, including $20 cardinal to nutrient a Sesame Street amusement successful Iraq.
Several much examples of questionable spending person been uncovered astatine USAID, including much than $900,000 to a "Gaza-based panic charity" called Bayader Association for Environment and Development and a $1.5 cardinal programme slated to "advance diversity, equity, and inclusion successful Serbia's workplaces and concern communities."
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Trump has moved to gut the bureau aft imposing a 90-day intermission connected overseas aid. He besides has appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the acting manager of USAID.
Government worker unions had sued to halt the wide layoffs, but U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols connected Friday lifted a impermanent restraining bid helium had issued astatine the outset of the lawsuit and declined to contented a longer-term bid keeping the employees successful their posts.
Nichols, who was appointed by President Trump during his archetypal term, besides wrote that due to the fact that the affected employees had not gone done an administrative quality process, helium apt did not person jurisdiction to perceive the unions' lawsuit oregon see their broader arguments that the medication is violating the U.S. Constitution by shutting down an bureau created and funded by Congress.
The justice said the contented was jurisdictional, that national territory courts should not beryllium progressive astatine this stage, and that the substance should beryllium handled administratively nether national employment laws.
"The tribunal concludes that plaintiffs person not demonstrated that they oregon their members volition endure irreparable wounded absent an injunction; that their claims are apt to win connected the merits; oregon that the equilibrium of the hardships oregon the nationalist involvement powerfully favors an injunction."
The unions tin present spell to the Washington, D.C., national appeals tribunal for exigency alleviation to person the TRO enactment backmost into place, oregon perchance a preliminary injunction.
Fox News’ Bill Mears, Andrew Mark Miller, Aubrie Spady, Deirdre Heavey, Morgan Phillips and Emma Colton arsenic good arsenic Reuters contributed to this report.
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