Workers of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) who are dismissed left their Washington, D.C., offices for the last time on Friday, with some carrying boxes inscribed with messages that appeared to be directed at President Donald Trump, who is reducing the agency’s workforce.
Weeks ago, thousands of USAID staff were notified of their pending dismissals. On Friday, February 21, a federal judge on Friday cleared the way for the Trump administration to follow through with the mass dismissals as it aims to eliminate waste throughout the federal bureaucracy.
One message on a box being hauled out by a grinning staffer as she walked out of USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs office read “We are abandoning the world.”
Another one also read: “You can take the humanitarians out of USAID but you can’t take the humanity out of the humanitarians.”
Outside the headquarters, a small group of former USAID employees and well-wishers greeted the staffers on with signs that said, “We love USAID” and “Thank you for your service, USAID.”
Some workers also left the offices with tears.
The staffers along with an unknown number of 5,000 locally hired international staffers abroad would oversee the few life-saving programs that the administration says it intends to continue for the time being.
Trump has decided to halt foreign aid for 90 days and then proceeded to dismantle the agency. Additionally, he appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio USAID’s acting director.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols withdrew a temporary restraining order he imposed at the beginning of the case and declined to issue a longer-term order keeping the employees in their positions, despite government employee unions filing a lawsuit to stop the mass layoffs.
Also, Nichols, who was appointed by President Trump during his first term, wrote that because the affected employees had not gone through an administrative dispute process, he likely did not have jurisdiction to hear the unions’ case or consider their broader arguments that the administration is violating the U.S. Constitution by shutting down an agency created and funded by Congress.
The judge ruled that the matter should be handled administratively in accordance with federal employment laws, that the subject was jurisdictional, and that federal district courts should not get involved at this time.
Part of the ruling states: “In sum, because the Court likely lacks jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ claims, they have not established a likelihood of success on the merits.”
“The court concludes that plaintiffs have not demonstrated that they or their members will suffer irreparable injury absent an injunction; that their claims are likely to succeed on the merits; or that the balance of the hardships or the public interest strongly favors an injunction.”
The unions can now go for immediate relief to reinstate the TRO or even a preliminary injunction from the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.
