The Trump administration has placed most USAID employees back on administrative leave from midnight on Sunday.
Some 2,000 employees are also being laid off in a “reduction in force” effort, the Office of the Administrator said in an email to employees obtained by CBS News, the BBC’s American news partner.
The move comes weeks after President Donald Trump initially attempted to eliminate thousands of USAID employees, but the move faced a legal challenge.
A federal judge had temporarily halted the administration’s plan to gut America’s foreign aid agency, but ruled on Friday that the pause would not be permanent.
The notice to employees clarifies that “designated personnel” responsible for critical functions or in leadership will be exempt. It’s not clear how many employees have been deemed critical.
The email to staff said USAID intended to fund voluntary return travel for overseas staff.
Judge Carl Nichols ruled on Friday that the Trump administration could continue its plans to get rid of staffers, dismissing pleas from employees to halt the government’s plan.
Sunday’s announcement marks the latest in a string of moves from the Trump administration to reduce the federal workforce and cut costs.
That effort is being led by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk, who requested over the weekend that millions of bureaucrats list their accomplishments from the past week.
The pair have been critical of America’s sizable overseas spending, and USAID has become a lightning rod for their frustration. Trump has said the agency fails to align with his “America First” policy priorities.
On Saturday, from the stage at a conservative convention outside 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-enforement agency, is reportedly 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.
USAID employed around 10,000 people, two-thirds of whom worked overseas, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Trump’s cutbacks to USAID – championed by Musk – 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.
“When you pull all of that out, you send some very dangerous messages,” former USAID chief Gayle Smith previously told the BBC.
“The US is signalling that we don’t frankly care whether people live or die and that we’re not a reliable partner.”
