US hires 50,000 federal workers under Trump, boosting immigration roles | World News
Trump’s adminration dismissed employees charged with enforcing civil rights laws, collecting tax revenue and overseeing clean energy projects. (AP Photo)
The US government has hired 50,000 employees since President Donald Trump took office, his top personnel official said, with the new staff largely in national security positions reflecting the adminration’s policy focus.
The bulk of the new hires, reported first Reuters, work at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Scott Kupor, the federal government’s human resources director, in an interview on Thursday night.
The staff changes are part of Trump’s campaign to reshape the government while sharply cutting other federal jobs.
The adminration brought on the new employees while freezing hiring and laying off workers in other parts of the government, such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The adminration expects to shed about 300,000 workers this year, Kupor said in August.
Trump appointed billionaire Elon Musk in January to launch a project to downsize the 2.4 million-strong federal civilian workforce. Musk, with Trump’s backing, said the federal workforce had become too big and too inefficient.
Trump’s adminration dismissed employees charged with enforcing civil rights laws, collecting tax revenue and overseeing clean energy projects.
As part of the downsizing, about 154,000 employees accepted a buyout offer from the Trump adminration. The buyouts impacted a wide range of government activities, including weather forecasting, food safety, health programs and space projects, according to former federal employees and unions who spoke to Reuters earlier this year.
