WASHINGTON (CN) — A coalition of unions sued the Trump administration Thursday night over the controversial dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development earlier this week, requesting a federal judge intervene to halt the further dissolution of the humanitarian aid agency.
The American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The suit follows a wave of litigation against the administration, billionaire Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees and contractors,” the unions said. “They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled U.S. national security interests.”
President Donald Trump began moving against the agency on Jan. 20, issuing an executive order, “Reevaluating and Realigning Untied States Foreign Aid,” which placed an immediate 90-day pause in foreign aid for an assessment.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio then issued immediate stop-work orders on USAID foreign assistance awards, “without any notice or process,” the unions said. Trump then named Rubio the acting Director of USAID and said he would consult with Congress on the “potential reorganization” of the agency.
After the assistance awards were frozen, over 1,000 USAID institutional support contractors, and thousands more employees of USAID contractors or grantees, were laid off or furloughed, the unions said.
“The humanitarian consequences of defendants’ actions have already been catastrophic,” the unions said. “USAID provides life-saving food, medicine and support to hundreds of thousands of people across the world. Without agency partners to implement this mission, U.S.-led medical clinics, soup kitchen, refugee assistance programs and countless other programs shuddered to an immediate halt.”
Trump’s efforts heightened this past week — after Musk called USAID a “criminal organization” and a “ball of worms” over the weekend — removing two top security officials after they refused to grant DOGE representatives access to classified systems and informing staffers that the agency’s headquarters would be closed Monday.
That same day, more than 1,000 USAID employees, including some in war zones, were locked out of their computer account.
On Thursday the administration told the agency’s workforce that it would retain only about 290 of the 10,000 employees worldwide, as well as canceling about 800 awards and contracts administered through the agency.
Almost all of the agency’s direct hires, including its Foreign Service officers, are set to be put on indefinite administrative leave on Friday, at midnight. The Foreign Service officers will then have 30 days to return to the United States.
“Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization,” the unions said. “And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency.”
Musk has defended the sweeping changes, decrying countless programs as examples of government waste, particularly those related to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and boosting the rights of LGBTQ individuals and women. Other programs meant to support global democracy and civil society groups, like certain scholarships for democracy activists in Myanmar, have also fallen under Musk and his DOGE team’s scrutiny.
Thursday’s lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions taken against Musk, his DOGE team and members of Trump’s Cabinet that have granted his reportedly young and inexperienced non-governmental agents to sensitive information systems.
It is also the latest lawsuit to challenge actions stemming from Trump’s slew of executive orders, the 35th in the two-and-a-half weeks since Trump returned to the White House.
A union coalition sued the Treasury Department on Tuesday for granting DOGE agents access to highly sensitive systems that includes the personal and financial information of tens of million of Americans. The system govern Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients, tax refunds and thousands of other functions.
Another union coalition sued the Labor Department on Wednesday to block Musk’s access to sensitive worker data and confidential trade secret information regarding Musk’s corporate competitors, an incursion they warned was imminent.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Thursday’s press briefing that Musk, a “special government employee,” would be allowed to self-govern himself regarding any conflicts of interest.
Answering a reporter question, Leavitt said that “if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, Elon will excuse himself from those contracts.”
Musk’s assortment of owned companies could bring that issue to the forefront soon.
The Labor Department has probed and fined Tesla and SpaceX for unsafe working conditions, Musk himself faces an SEC lawsuit for misleading investors while gaining a majority stake in X, and Tesla is the subject of a DOJ probe for possible securities and wire fraud for its unsupported claims about fully autonomous vehicles.