WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Sunday that it is eliminating 2,000 positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development and placing all but a fraction of other staffers worldwide on leave.

It comes after a federal judge on Friday allowed the administration to move forward with pulling thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the United States and around the world. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols rejected pleas that came in a lawsuit from employees to keep temporarily blocking the government’s plan.

“As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally,” according to the notices sent to USAID workers and viewed by the Associated Press.

At the same time, the agency said it is cutting the U.S.-based workforce by about 2,000 employees.

The move escalates a monthlong administration assault on the agency that has closed its headquarters in Washington and shut down thousands of U.S. aid and development programs worldwide after an effort to freeze foreign assistance. President Trump and his chief cost-cutter, Elon Musk, contend the aid and development work is wasteful and furthers a liberal agenda.

Citing a concern for workers stationed overseas who have reported being cut off from government communications, the notices say that “USAID is committed to keeping its overseas personnel safe. Until they return home, personnel will retain access to Agency systems and to diplomatic and other resources.”

The administration said employees put on leave overseas are expected to receive “voluntary Agency-funded return travel” and other benefits.

Nichols, who was nominated by Trump, said he had been “very concerned” about workers in high-risk areas left overseas without access to emergency communications. But he said he has since been reassured by the administration that workers would still have access to two-way radios that allow 24–7 communications in emergencies, as well as a phone app with a “panic button.”

The judge said the government’s statements convinced him “that the risk posed to USAID employees who are placed on administrative leave while stationed abroad — if there is any — is far more minimal than it initially appeared.”

The notices of firings and leaves come on top of hundreds of USAID contractors receiving no-name form letters of termination over the weekend, according to copies that the AP viewed.

The blanket nature of the notification letters to USAID contractors, excluding the names or positions of those receiving it, could make it difficult for the dismissed personnel to get unemployment benefits, workers said.

A different judge in a second lawsuit tied to the dismantling of USAID has temporarily blocked the freeze on foreign assistance and said last week that the administration had kept withholding the aid despite his court order and must at least temporarily restore the funding to programs worldwide.

Pregnant women fear over their care

Meanwhile, American women and their spouses say they have been left in substandard medical care in posts in unstable countries, fearing for their lives.

“Everyone says I need to wait and see what happens” with Trump administration decisions, a USAID staffer, whose pregnancy is complicated by high blood pressure, said in a court filing from her posting in an undisclosed country in Africa.

The woman’s affidavit and others from staffers were filed with courts anonymously because of repeated warnings from the Trump administration that USAID staffers risk dismissal if they speak publicly.

“I have a due date that does not allow me to just wait and see what happens,” the USAID staffer wrote. “If I cannot medevac as planned, I will be in a life-threatening situation.”

In another case, a pregnant spouse of a USAID worker was left hemorrhaging in a foreign hospital bed to await delivery, her husband said in another affidavit. The intervention of a U.S. senator, who was not identified in the the affidavit, secured the government’s agreement to pay for a medical evacuation. But doctors say the approval came too late in her pregnancy for her to safely take a long series of flights back to the U.S., even with medical escort.

The State Department did not respond to requests for comment on workers’ allegations that the government was stalling or refusing medical evacuations.

Workers facing other uncertainty abroad

In lifting his order temporarily blocking a Trump administration order that would put thousands of USAID staffers on leave, Nichols could allow the administration to start the clock on a 30-day deadline for USAID workers abroad to leave their posts.

Lawyers for employee groups presented Nichols with accounts saying that the Trump administration had left workers without direction or funding when political violence in Congo forced their evacuation.

USAID officials paid for two meals and offered the evacuated Congo-based employees an opportunity to look through boxes of donated clothing once they arrived in Washington, said the staffers, who were not identified in court documents.

Administration officials otherwise have left the evacuated staffers to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in uncompensated hotel bills, with no guidance on whether they should stay in Washington, go elsewhere or whether they still will have a job, the lawsuit charges.

USAID workers still overseas describe their lives as in chaos and lacking guidance from the government, including USAID failing to pay electricity bills.

Staffers told the courts in written testimony that they fear being left without time or the means to sell their homes or pay off landlords owed money. But they say they fear being targeted if they try to stay beyond the current 30-day deadline — frozen by Nichols’ earlier order — to return to the U.S. at government expense.

Other staffers offered testimony about being cut off from U.S. government communications. Multiple contract employees have told the AP that “panic button” apps and other alert systems on their phones meant to notify the U.S. government in the event of a safety threat were cut off for at least some time.

Knickmeyer writes for the Associated Press.