Court Halts Mass Layoffs at USAID Planned by Trump

A U.S. federal court has temporarily halted Donald Trump's plan to place over 2,000 USAID employees on administrative leave, in response to a union lawsuit, reports NewsBox.

Federal Judge Carl Nichols has issued a temporary ruling to stop the Trump administration's plans to furlough more than 2,000 employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The decision followed a union appeal, which argued that such actions would cause "irreparable harm" to the staff.

The final details of the ruling, including the future of 500 workers who are already on leave, remain unknown. Reuters reports that Judge Nichols has not supported the other demands from the unions, such as restoring access to USAID buildings and resuming funding for the agency's grants and contracts.

Previously, U.S. President Donald Trump had called to "shut down USAID." According to information shared with agency staff, out of more than 10,000 employees, only 611 were to be retained. The remaining over 2,000 individuals were supposed to go on administrative leave by midnight Friday.