Judge blocks Trump from putting thousands of USAID employees on leave

(CN) — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the U.S. Agency for International Development from putting 2,200 workers on paid leave on Friday after employee groups filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s authority to shut down the agency.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated by President Donald Trump, sided with two federal employee associations in agreeing to pause plans to put the employees on paid leave, which was to begin on midnight Friday.

Nichols announced his decision following a hastily called hearing and said he would issue a written order Friday evening.

“THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE,” Trump said in an all-caps social media post Friday morning. “CLOSE IT DOWN!”

The decision came just a day after the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit, arguing Trump unlawfully dismantled the six-decade-old aid agency without authorization from Congress. It asks the federal court in Washington to order the reopening of USAID’s buildings, return its employees to work, and restore funding.

“These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors. They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled U.S. national security interests,” the groups wrote in the suit.

It marks the first suit to challenge the unprecedented push by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency to target U.S. foreign aid programs and staff as part of their effort to cut federal government spending and align U.S. foreign policy with their “America First” agenda.

It is also the latest lawsuit to challenge actions stemming from Trump’s slew of executive orders, the 35th in the two-and-a-half weeks since Trump returned to the White House.

Trump began moving against the agency on Jan. 20, issuing an executive order, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” which placed an immediate 90-day pause on foreign aid for an assessment.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio then issued immediate stop-work orders on USAID foreign assistance awards, “without any notice or process,” the unions said. Trump then named Rubio the acting director of USAID and said he would consult with Congress on the “potential reorganization” of the agency.

After the assistance awards were frozen, over 1,000 USAID institutional support contractors, plus thousands more employees of USAID contractors or grantees, were laid off or furloughed, the unions said.

The suit claims the order prevents USAID employees from carrying out their global work in alleviating poverty, disease, and humanitarian crises.

“The humanitarian consequences of defendants’ actions have already been catastrophic,” the groups wrote in the complaint.

“USAID provides life-saving food, medicine, and support to hundreds of thousands of people across the world. Without agency partners to implement this mission, U.S.-led medical clinics, soup kitchens, refugee assistance programs, and countless other programs shuddered to an immediate halt,” they added.

Earlier this week, USAID alerted its overseas employees that they would be required to curtail their assignments and return to the United States within 30 days to secure government-paid relocation and travel expenses.

The agency said it would consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship, mobility, or safety concerns, such as for families with children enrolled in school.

It later clarified in a notice posted on the USAID website late Thursday that none of the overseas personnel put on leave would be forced to leave the country where they work but would be required to cover their own travel costs after the 30-day period.

Rubio said the U.S. government will continue providing foreign aid, “but it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest."

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