The judge stops Trump’s plan to send thousands of staff to the license agency

A Federal Court has issued a “very limited” temporal order that stops President Donald Trump’s plan to gut the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The judge issued a restriction order that would prevent 2,200 employees from being placed on administrative license as scheduled for midnight on Friday. USAID uses about 10,000 people, two thirds of whom they work abroad.

The lawyers of the agency’s employees, which is the main development organization abroad from the United States government, presented an emergency request with the aim of stopping the plan to place the vast majority of their workforce with license with license .

Some 611 employees would have continued working under the plan by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.

Trump has pointed to the agency since it is a long -term critic of spending abroad, arguing that USAID It is not a valuable use of taxpayers’ money.

It is one of the many federal agencies to which the Trump administration is directed, since it works to reduce federal expenditure in the United States.

Trump campaigned to review the government and formed an advisory agency called the Government Efficiency Department (Doge), directed by Musk, to reduce the budget.

Friday’s order by the American district judge Carl Nichols In Washington, DC occurred after a lawsuit was filed by the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government employees, two unions that represent the agency’s employees.

Judge Nichols, who was nominated by Trump during his first term, said the written order would be issued later.

The lawsuit argued that the president was violating the constitution of the United States and the Federal Law by trying to dismantle the agency. “Not even one of the actions of the defendants to dismantle USAID was taken in accordance with the authorization of the Congress,” he said.

“And in accordance with the Federal Statute, Congress is the only entity that can legally dismantle the agency.”

On Thursday, the Trump administration sent a notice to USAID employees who planned to maintain 611 essential employees.

An official of the Department of Justice, Brett Shumate, told the judge that Trump “has decided that there is corruption and fraud in USAID.”

Also on Friday, officials eliminated and covered the USAID signs at the organization’s headquarters in Washington DC.

Some left signs and flowers near the covered logos, one with a rip USAID tombstone. His office in the US capital has been closed all week.

Hours after Trump assumed the position on January 20, he signed an executive order stopping all foreign assistance until these funds were examined and aligned with their “Crust America” ​​policy.

That led to an stop order in Usaid, which in turn The global aid system overturned As hundreds of programs have frozen in countries around the world.

On Thursday, Trump published on his social platform Truth: “USAID is driving the radical that is crazy.

“Corruption is seen at levels rarely seen before. Closing!”

The United States is, with much, the largest supplier of humanitarian aid worldwide. It has bases in more than 60 countries and works in dozens of others, with much of their work carried out by its contractors.

According to government data, the United States spent $ 68 billion (£ 55 billion) in international aid in 2023.

This total is distributed in several departments and agencies, but the USAID budget constitutes more than half of around $ 40 billion, that is approximately 0.6% of the total annual expenditure of the USA.

The former USAID bosses have criticized the reported cut plan. One of them, Gayle Smith, emphasized the BBC that the United States had always been the fastest to arrive during humanitarian crises worldwide.

“When you take out all that, you send some very dangerous messages,” said Smith. “To the United States is pointing out that we do not care frankly if people live or die and that we are not a reliable partner.”