A federal judge on Friday to President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk his first great setback in his attempt to dismant I work thousands of agency employees.
Both measures would have exposed to US workers and their spouses and children to unjustified risks and expenses, said the judge.
Nichols pointed out stories of workers abroad that the Trump administration, in its hurry to close the agency and its programs abroad, had cut to some workers the government emails and other communication systems that they needed to communicate with the government of United States in case of a health or safety emergency.
AP previously reported that USAID contractors in the Middle East and other places had discovered that even the “panic button” applications had been erased from their mobile or disabled phones when the administration suspended them abruptly.
“The administrative license in Syria is not the same as the administrative license in Bethesda,” said the judge in his order on Friday night.
By accepting to stop the 30 -day period given to USAID employees to return home at the expense of the government, Nichols cited statements from agency employees who did not have a home where to go in the US. UU. After decades in the Foreigner, who faced the need to get children with special needs out of the year and had other difficulties.
Ordered the employees to be reimbursed to their positions
The judge also ordered that USAID employees who had already been suspended by the Trump administration were reintegrated to their positions, but rejected a request for two federal employee associations to grant a temporary block to the freezing of Trump administration funds that has paralyzed the agency, which has been operating for six decades, and its work, waiting for more audiences on the demand of workers.
Nichols emphasized Friday’s hearing on the request to pause the actions of the Trump administration that his order was not a decision on the application of employees to reverse the rapid destruction of the agency by the administration.
“Cint it,” Trump said on Usaid social networks before the judge’s decision.
The American Foreign Service and the American Federation of Government employees argue that Trump lacks the authority to close the agency without the approval of the Congress. Democratic legislators have made the same argument.
Trump actions
The Trump administration quickly acted on Friday to literally erase the agency’s name. Workers in a crane cleaned the name of the stone facade of its headquarters in Washington. They used adhesive tape to block it on a sign and removed the USAID flags.
The Trump and Musk administration, who is directing a government efficiency department with budget cuts, have made USAID their biggest objective so far in an unprecedented challenge to the federal government and many of its programs.
Those appointed by the administration and teams of Musk have stopped almost all the financing of the agency, arresting help and development programs worldwide. They have put employees and contractors on license and suspension, and have blocked them outside the email and other agency systems. According to Democratic legislators, USAID computer servers also took.
“This is a large -scale dismantling of practically all the staff of an entire agency,” said Karla Gilbride, the lawyer of employee associations, to the judge.
“It has all the legal authority”
The lawyer of the Department of Justice, Brett Shumate, argued that the Administration has all the legal authority that needs to place the employees of the agency on license. “The government does this in all areas every day,” said Shumate. “That is what is happening here. It is simply a large number.”
Friday’s decision is the last setback in the courts for the Trump administration, whose policies of offering financial incentives to federal workers to resign and finish citizens by birth for any person born in the US. been temporarily paused by judges.
Earlier on Friday, a group of half a dozen USAID officials who spoke with journalists rejected the statements of the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, that the most essential rescue programs abroad were receiving exemptions to continue their financing. None received them, officials said.
Among the programs that said they had not received exemptions: $ 450 million in foods produced by sufficient American farmers to feed 36 million people, who were not being paid or delivered; and water supplies for 1.6 million people displaced by war in the Darfur region, in Sudan, who were being cut without money for fuel to operate water pumps in the desert.
The order of the judge involved the decision of the Trump administration earlier this week of withdrawing almost all USAID workers from their work and the countryside worldwide.
Trump and Republicans in Congress have talked about transferring a very small number of aid and development programs under the State Department.
Employees fear personnel reductions
Within the State Department itself, employees fear substantial reductions of personnel after the deadline for the offer of financial incentives of the Trump administration so that federal workers renounce, according to officials who spoke under condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. A judge temporarily blocked that offer and scheduled a hearing for Monday.
The administration at the beginning of this week gave almost all USAID employees published abroad 30 days, starting on Friday, to return to the US, with the government covering their travel and move costs. The diplomats in the embassies requested exemptions that allowed more time for some, including families forced to withdraw their children from schools in the middle of the year.
In a notice published on the USAID website late on Thursday, the agency clarified that none of the employees abroad on license would be forced to leave the country in which they work. But he said that workers who choose to stay more than 30 days could have to cover their own expenses unless they received a specific exemption for difficulties.
What did Marco Rubio say?
Rubio said Thursday during a trip to the Dominican Republic that the Government would help employees to return home within 30 days “if they wanted it” and listen to those with special conditions.
He insisted that the measures were the only way to obtain cooperation because the employees were working “to make payments and push payments despite the arrest warrant” on foreign assistance. Agency employees deny their obstruction statements.
Rubio said that the US government will continue to provide foreign aid, “but it will be an external help that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest.”
