WASHINGTON (Reuters)-The US State Department of the United States began to dismiss more than 1,350 employees based on the country on Friday, while President Donald Trump’s government advances with an unprecedented reform of his diplomatic corps.
For critics, the measure will undermine US ability to defend and promote their interests abroad.
Laywriting, which affects 1,107 civil servants and 246 US -based foreign service employees, occur at a time when Washington is dealing with multiple crises on the world scenario: The Russian War in Ukraine, the almost two -year conflict in Gaza and the Middle East on alert due to the high tension between Israel and Iran.
“The department is optimizing domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities,” said an internal statement from the state department sent to the workforce.
“Personnel reductions have been carefully planned to affect non -essential functions, duplicate or redundant offices and offices where considerable efficiencies can be found,” he added.
The total reduction in the workforce will be almost 3,000, including voluntary exits, according to the notice and a high state department official. In total there are 18,000 employees based on the United States.
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The measure is the first step in a restructuring that Trump seeks to ensure that US foreign policy is aligned with his “America in the first place.”
Former Diplomats and critics say the resignation of foreign service employees endangers US capacity to contain the growing assertiveness of opponents such as China and Russia.
“President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio are once again making America less safe and less protected,” Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said in a statement.
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“This is one of the most ridiculous decisions that could be made at a time when China is increasing its diplomatic presence around the world and establishing an international network of military and transportation, Russia remains its brutal attack on a sovereign country and the Middle East is on crisis,” Kaine said.
Dozens of state department officials filled the agency’s headquarters in Washington, making a makeshift “applause” in honor of their dismissed colleagues. Dozens of people cried as they carried their belongings in boxes, hugged and said goodbye to friends and co -workers.
Outside, dozens of other people were lined up, continuing to applaud and vibrate for them, some holding tracks with the words: “Thank you, diplomats of America.” Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen attended the demonstration.
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Several offices were set up inside the building so that employees being fired to deliver their badges, laptops, phones and other agency goods.
The offices were marked with posters that said “transition day – external processing.” A counter was identified as a “external processing services center” with small bottles of water placed next to a box of paper scarves. Within one of the offices, cardboard boxes were visible.
A five-page “Separation Verification List”-sent to Reuters-made workers on Friday-informs employees that they would lose access to the building and their emails at 17h (East Summer Time).
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Many members of a state department office that supervised the resettlement of Afghans in the US and who worked for the government during the 20 -year war were also fired as part of the reform.
“Wrong sign”
In February, Trump ordered the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to reformulate the Foreign Affairs service to ensure that the Republican President’s foreign policy would be implemented “faithfully.” He also promised repeatedly to “clean the deep state”, dismissing bureaucrats he considers unfair
The reformulation is part of an unprecedented initiative of Trump to reduce federal bureaucracy and cut what it considers a waste of public money. Her government dismantled the United States Agency for International Assistance (USAID), Washington’s main humanitarian humanitarian arm, which distributed billions of dollars in assistance worldwide, and transferred it to the state department.
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Rubio announced the plans for the reformulation of the State Department in April, saying that the agency, in its present form, was “swollen, bureaucratic” and was unable to perform its mission “in this new era of great power competition.”
He imagined a structure that would return power to regional and embassies, eliminating programs and offices that were not aligned with the main interests of the United States.
This view would see the elimination of the role of the high official for civil security, democracy and human rights and the closure of some offices that monitored war crimes and conflicts around the world.
The reorganization should be completed by large part until July 1, but it did not occur as planned amid a litigation in progress. The State Department was waiting for the US Supreme Court to comment on the Trump government’s attempt to suspend a court order that blocked mass jobs.
On Tuesday, the court paved the way for the Trump government to proceed with job cuts and the drastic reduction of personnel in various agencies.
