Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Judge Blocks Trump From Placing Thousands of USAID Workers on Leave
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 3 months ago on
February 8, 2025

A federal judge temporarily blocks Trump's efforts to dismantle USAID, citing concerns for worker safety and program continuity. (AP/Jose Luis Magana)

Share

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Friday dealt President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk their first big setback in their dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ordering a temporary halt to plans to pull thousands of agency staffers off the job.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, also agreed to block an order that would have given the thousands of overseas USAID workers the administration wanted to place on abrupt administrative leave just 30 days to move families and households back to the U.S. on government expense.

Both moves would have exposed the U.S. workers and their spouses and children to unwarranted risk and expense, the judge said.

Nichols pointed to accounts from workers abroad that the Trump administration, in its rush to shut down the agency and its programs abroad, had cut some workers off from government emails and other communication systems they needed to reach the U.S. government in case of a health or safety emergency.

The Associated Press reported earlier that USAID contractors in the Middle East and elsewhere had found even “panic button” apps wiped off their mobile phones or disabled when the administration abruptly furloughed them.

“Administrative leave in Syria is not the same as administrative leave in Bethesda,” the judge said in his order Friday night.

Judge Cites Worker Concerns

In agreeing to stop the 30-day deadline given USAID staffers to return home at government expense, Nichols cited statements from agency employees who had no home to go to in the U.S. after decades abroad, who faced pulling children with special needs out of school midyear, and had other difficulties.

The judge also ordered USAID staffers already placed on leave by the Trump administration reinstated. But he declined a request from two federal employee associations to grant a temporary block on a Trump administration funding freeze that has shut down the six-decade-old agency and its work, pending more hearings on the workers’ lawsuit.

Nichols stressed in the hearing earlier Friday on the request to pause the Trump administration’s actions that his order was not a decision on the employees’ request to roll back the administration’s swiftly moving destruction of the agency.

“CLOSE IT DOWN,” Trump said on social media of USAID before the judge’s ruling.

Legal Challenges and Administration Actions

The American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees argue that Trump lacks the authority to shut down the agency without approval from Congress. Democratic lawmakers have made the same argument.

Trump’s administration moved quickly Friday to literally erase the agency’s name. Workers on a crane scrubbed the name from the stone front of its Washington headquarters. They used duct tape to block it out on a sign and took down USAID flags. Someone placed a bouquet of flowers outside the door.

The Trump administration and Musk, who is running a budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, have made USAID their biggest target so far in an unprecedented challenge of the federal government and many of its programs.

Administration appointees and Musk’s teams have shut down almost all funding for the agency, stopping aid and development programs worldwide. They have placed staffers and contractors on leave and furlough and locked them out of the agency’s email and other systems. According to Democratic lawmakers, they also carted away USAID’s computer servers.

Impact on Global Aid Programs

Earlier Friday, a group of a half-dozen USAID officials speaking to reporters strongly disputed assertions from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the most essential life-saving programs abroad were getting waivers to continue funding. None were, the officials said.

Among the programs they said had not received waivers: $450 million in food grown by U.S. farmers sufficient to feed 36 million people, which was not being paid for or delivered; and water supplies for 1.6 million people displaced by war in Sudan’s Darfur region, which were being cut off without money for fuel to run water pumps in the desert.

The judge’s order involved the Trump administration’s decision earlier this week to pull almost all USAID workers off the job and out of the field worldwide.

Trump and congressional Republicans have spoken of moving a much-reduced number of aid and development programs under the State Department.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Police Arrest Teen Suspect in Threat of School Shooting at Monache High

DON'T MISS

The Trump-Supporting Christians Accusing Jews of Antisemitism

DON'T MISS

In Approving Soda Ban for Food Stamps, USDA Reverses Decades of Policy

DON'T MISS

Congress Debates Two Issues With Big CA Implications: EVs, Taxes

DON'T MISS

Kennedy’s War on Pesticides Riles Farmers and a GOP Senator

DON'T MISS

26 Million Reasons ‘Y’ Clovis Is Optimistic About City Budget

DON'T MISS

NFL Owners Vote Down Proposed Tush Push Ban

DON'T MISS

Indy 500 Announces First Grandstand Sellout Since 2016 With 350,000 Expected for the Race on Sunday

DON'T MISS

NFL Owners Unanimously Approve Player Participation in Olympic Flag Football for 2028

DON'T MISS

Madera Police Arrest Man for Concealed Black Powder Derringer

UP NEXT

The Trump-Supporting Christians Accusing Jews of Antisemitism

UP NEXT

In Approving Soda Ban for Food Stamps, USDA Reverses Decades of Policy

UP NEXT

Congress Debates Two Issues With Big CA Implications: EVs, Taxes

UP NEXT

Kennedy’s War on Pesticides Riles Farmers and a GOP Senator

UP NEXT

26 Million Reasons ‘Y’ Clovis Is Optimistic About City Budget

UP NEXT

NFL Owners Vote Down Proposed Tush Push Ban

UP NEXT

Indy 500 Announces First Grandstand Sellout Since 2016 With 350,000 Expected for the Race on Sunday

UP NEXT

NFL Owners Unanimously Approve Player Participation in Olympic Flag Football for 2028

UP NEXT

Madera Police Arrest Man for Concealed Black Powder Derringer

UP NEXT

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder Beat the Rested Timberwolves in Game 1 of West Finals

Wired Wednesday: As Gold Hits Record High, People Cash In

14 hours ago

Netanyahu Says Israel Probably Killed Hamas Leader Mohammed Sinwar

14 hours ago

California Cop Was Partying at Festival While Collecting $600,000 for Fake Injury

14 hours ago

Attorney: Fresno Unified Needs to Find ‘Nearest Exit’ in Defamation Lawsuit

15 hours ago

Trump Presses False ‘Genocide’ Narrative in Tense Meeting With South African Leader

15 hours ago

Here’s What to Expect at the Army’s 250th Anniversary Parade on Trump’s Birthday

15 hours ago

Fresno EOC Spending Depleted $8 Million Reserve. Agency Needed $5 Million Loan to Survive

15 hours ago

Defense Department Accepts Boeing 747 From Qatar for Trump’s Use

15 hours ago

Hundreds Attend Measure C Meeting. Will Their Voices Be Heard?

16 hours ago

Defense Department Accepts Boeing 747 From Qatar for Trump’s Use

16 hours ago

Former Student Charged With Attempted Murder in Knife Attack at Porterville’s Monache High

A 19-year-old former student was charged with attempted murder after allegedly attacking a student with a knife inside a classroom at Monach...

13 hours ago

13 hours ago

Former Student Charged With Attempted Murder in Knife Attack at Porterville’s Monache High

Fresno Police arrested a man on probation after finding a concealed firearm during a traffic stop near Belmont Avenue and Parkway Drive. (Fresno PD)
14 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Felon on Probation After Finding Concealed Gun

14 hours ago

What Does It Mean for Biden’s Prostate Cancer to Be ‘Aggressive’? A Urologic Surgeon Explains

14 hours ago

Wired Wednesday: As Gold Hits Record High, People Cash In

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
14 hours ago

Netanyahu Says Israel Probably Killed Hamas Leader Mohammed Sinwar

14 hours ago

California Cop Was Partying at Festival While Collecting $600,000 for Fake Injury

15 hours ago

Attorney: Fresno Unified Needs to Find ‘Nearest Exit’ in Defamation Lawsuit

15 hours ago

Trump Presses False ‘Genocide’ Narrative in Tense Meeting With South African Leader

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend