Ana Faguy
BBC News, Washington DC
The Trump administration has placed most United States Agency for International Development (USAID) employees back on administrative leave from midnight on Sunday and laid off hundreds more.
In addition to some 4,200 staff who are being placed on leave, at least 1,600 employees are being fired.
The move comes weeks after President Donald Trump’s initial attempt to eliminate thousands of USAID employees was held up by a legal challenge.
A federal judge temporarily halted the administration’s plan to gut America’s foreign aid agency, but ruled on Friday that the pause would not be permanent. Founded in 1961, USAID employed around 10,000 staff until the recent cost-cutting began.
The notice to USAID employees on Sunday from the Office of the Administrator said that “designated personnel” responsible for critical functions or in leadership would be exempt from administrative leave.
It’s not clear how many employees will be kept on, but USAID had previously deemed 611 personnel to be essential.
The email said USAID intended to fund voluntary return travel for overseas staff.
Around 4,200 employees will be placed on leave, according to the BBC’s US news partner CBS.
The USAID website said there would be a “reduction-in-force” of an additional 1,600 personnel in the US.
That would amount to at least 5,800 USAID employees on administrative leave or laid off – or well over half the agency’s workforce.
The development follows a ruling on Friday by Judge Carl Nichols in Washington DC that the Trump administration could press ahead with its plans to get rid of USAID employees.
Another federal judge said last week that the Trump administration was failing to abide by a ruling requiring the government to continue financing foreign aid already approved by Congress while legal challenges play out.
It is unclear whether those USAID staff being placed on leave will eventually be rehired, or have their positions eliminated, too.
The Trump administration is seeking to shrink the federal workforce and cut costs in a drive led by Elon Musk.
The billionaire Trump adviser asked millions of bureaucrats over the weekend to list their accomplishments from the past week.
Musk email to US government workers sparks confusion across agenciesWhat is USAID and why is Trump poised to ‘close it down’?On Saturday, from the stage at a conservative convention near Washington DC, Trump said: “We’ve also effectively ended the left-wing scam known as USAID.
“The agency’s name has been removed from its former building, and that space will now house agents from Customs and Border Patrol.”
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), a US immigration-enforcement agency, is ready to move into the USAID building in the heart of the nation’s capital.
“CBP has signed a licence agreement to occupy approximately 390,000 usable square feet in the USAID tower,” a CBP spokesperson told Fox News.
Trump and Musk have been critical of America’s sizable overseas spending, and USAID has become a lightning rod for their frustration. Trump and his allies have accused the agency of being too liberal and wasteful.
The cutbacks to USAID have already upended the global aid system. Hundreds of programmes have been frozen in countries around the world since the president announced his intentions in January.
The US is by far the biggest single provider of humanitarian aid around the world. It has bases in more than 60 countries and works in dozens of others, with much of its work carried out by its contractors.
Former USAID chief Gayle Smith previously told the BBC: “When you pull all of that out, you send some very dangerous messages.
“The US is signalling that we don’t frankly care whether people live or die and that we’re not a reliable partner.”
