Darren Lyn
08 February 2025•Update: 08 February 2025
HOUSTON, United States
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from placing 2,200 workers with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on administrative leave before a midnight deadline.
The move came after two labor unions -- American Foreign Service Association and American Federation of Government Employees -- filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration stating that employees would suffer "irreparable harm" with the pause.
"This is the full-scale gutting of virtually all of the personnel at an agency," a lawyer for USAID employees said in a statement, adding that the mass downscaling of workers from a nationwide total of more than 5,000 down to several hundred is causing "carnage" on the ground for the USAID workforce and department's contractors.
Judge Carl Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who President Donald Trump appointed in 2019, said he would approve a limited temporary restraining order that would block employees from being put on administrative leave. He said he would decide before the midnight deadline whether the 500 workers who were already placed on leave would be reinstated.
"Frankly, there is zero harm to the government," Nichols said about immediately implementing the short-term pause in the mass downsizing.
Attorneys for USAID also asked the court to immediately pause evacuation orders given to workers overseas and for access to be restored to computer systems for all workers and contractors.
The Trump administration said it planned to reduce the USAID workforce to 611 essential personnel, according to media outlets, but attorneys for the plaintiffs asked the judge to stop the plan from going forward, saying efforts to dissolve the foreign assistance agency "have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors."
Lawyers for USAID also argued that the mass reduction in staff was a violation of the separation of powers of congressional appropriations and Trump's efforts to dissolve the agency "exceeded presidential authority and usurp legislative authority conferred upon Congress by the Constitution."
The sudden evacuations and mass elimination of jobs have put USAID workers in a crisis. Many have already been cut from health insurance and benefits and workers being sent back to the US from international offices are returning without housing or sources of income.
As to why the USAID workforce was being dismantled, Acting Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate told the judge: "The president has decided there is corruption and fraud at USAID."
But Nichols pushed the government to detail what findings they had to substantiate those allegations and questioned the legitimacy of the moves by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, pointing out that Rubio was taking control of USAID without being an acting administrator, thus controlling the organization from a separate federal agency.
Trump doubled down on his allegations against USAID in a Truth Social post before Friday's hearing.
"THE WAY IN WHICH THE MONEY HAS BEEN SPENT, SO MUCH OF IT FRAUDULENTLY, IS TOTALLY UNEXPLAINABLE. THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!" said Trump.
