(WASHINGTON) — Several U.S. Agency for International Development staffers cleared out their offices at the agency’s Washington headquarters on Thursday, saying they were disheartened after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency laid them off or placed them on leave.
“The more I talk about it, the more I want to cry,” said Amanda, who worked in science and technology at USAID and did not want to share her last name out of fear of retribution, as she waited to enter the building to get her things. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Many staffers said they received an email late Sunday informing them they were placed on administrative leave and were later assigned 15-minute windows to enter the building and gather their belongings. Worldwide, 4,080 USAID workers were placed on leave on Monday, and there was a “reduction in force” of an additional 1,600 workers, a State Department spokesman told the Associated Press.
Those picking up their belongings on Thursday were cheered on by hundreds of friends, family and supporters outside as they exited the building with bankers boxes, reusable bags and suitcases.
“It feels profoundly disrespectful to workers, to people who are dedicating themselves to making things better globally, making things better elsewhere so that they don’t come here, so the problems don’t come here,” Melissa, who also did not share her last name, said of the short time they were allotted.
She previously worked on democracy programs in Ukraine and anti-corruption efforts.
“I mean and we’re all people, right,” she added. “We have kids to take care of, we have parents to take [care] of who are aging and we’re all struggling with that as well.”
Caitlin Harwood, a mother of a 4-year-old girl and a 9-month-old, said she is “worried” about her next paycheck and is unsure what is next for her.
A country desk officer with USAID for Mozambique, she told ABC News that while she believes the government could be made more efficient, she takes issue with the way Musk’s team has done it.
“I think there’s a way to go about that. I don’t think anybody would have been as terrified as they are now if they had come through and said we are going to have a program review,” Harwood said.
“So, this is not efficiency, and it’s actually costing the American people billions in dollars in wasted food, wasted medicine,” Harwood added.
Ben Thompson worked in communications prior to being laid off by USAID and said he had been under a “communications freeze” since the early days of the Trump administration.
“Powerful, evil men are targeting a lot of good people who have dedicated their lives to something bigger than themselves, which is something that somebody like Elon [Musk] can’t relate to,” Thompson told reporters. “This clearly isn’t about government waste, fraud and abuse. He’s not going through with a fine-toothed comb — he’s tearing down our institutions for fun.”
Samantha Power, the USAID administrator under former President Joe Biden, went inside the Ronald Reagan Building, which houses the agency’s headquarters, and spoke with workers Thursday morning.
“What is being done is one of the biggest blunders in American foreign policy history. It is one that generations of Americans will look back on in horror,” Power told ABC News. “But the way it’s being done, the cruelty, the savagery, the mercilessness, is an outrage, and it should, whatever you think about foreign assistance — to treat American public servants who want to do nothing more than serve their country, serve the American people, to treat them in the way they are being treated should chill and horrify all of us.”
Power said she hoped USAID workers “remember the lives you’ve touched.”
Some supporters gathered outside had traveled hours to be in Washington to cheer on workers as they exited the building.
Diana Putman told ABC News she drove 3 1/2 hours to get to Washington from Pennsylvania that morning “because I needed to be here to support my colleagues.”
Putman retired from USAID in 2022 after spending her entire decadeslong career with the agency. She followed in the footsteps of her father, who had begun working with USAID in March 1962 — just five months after it was founded.
“USAID literally is the preeminent development agency of the world, and our soft power has meant so, so much around the world for the last 60-plus years,” Putman said. “The positive face of the American people will no longer be seen around the world.”
When supporters arrived, black tape had been placed over the name of USAID on the signs outside of the Ronald Reagan Building. Kate Parsons, a worker who was laid off last week from the the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, ripped the tape off. She said she’d come out to support her colleagues.
“I don’t know who put that tape up, but I know that USAID is still here. We are still here,” Parsons told ABC News.
“Only Congress can shut down USAID — it’s a government agency. The current leadership is trying to dismantle it. They’re trying to do it so quickly and so sloppily that people don’t notice or people can’t stop it, but they haven’t fired us all yet,” Parsons added. “This fight is not done yet.”
USAID workers said they want the public to be proud of the work they did.
“We love the American people. We’re here to serve. That’s what bureaucrats are,” Harwood, the mom of two young children, said when asked about her message to the public. “We are nonpartisan. We had a mission. We were so proud to serve it. And we hope we did you proud.”
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