The continued drain of personnel from the already strained immigration court system has contributed to depleted staff morale, mounting case backlogs — and floundering due process.
Since his first term, President Trump has wanted to be able to fire federal employees for any reason. A new rule vastly expands his authority to do that.
Mass firings, buyouts and heightened uncertainty led to an exodus of federal workers in 2025. More than 300,000 employees will be out of the government by the end of December.
Jenna Norton has spoken critically about the Trump administration's funding cuts and mass firings at the National Institutes of Health. At the end of the shutdown, she says she was put on leave.
Some federal workers support the government shutdown, even as President Trump threatens to use this moment to lay off employees and cut funding to programs.
GPB's Orlando Montoya spoke about the potential economic effects of the government shutdown with Ray Hill, associate professor of finance at Emory University's Goizueta School of Business.
The Department of Justice has fired hundreds of employees this year, transforming a federal workforce that enjoys vast powers and responsibility over issues affecting the lives of everyday Americans.
A program at the University of Oklahoma trains much-needed mental health professionals for rural schools in the state. Now, its federal grant funding is on the chopping block.
The Trump administration had appealed a decision that had directed it to stop gutting the U.S. Education Department and to reinstate many of the workers the government had laid off.
The Trump administration's plans to convert some 50,000 civil servants into at-will employees has some worried that essential government functions will be politicized.
As part of Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill," the House voted to end a retirement supplement aimed at helping federal employees who retire before they're 62.
More than a thousand people who worked to keep American agriculture free of pests and disease have left the federal workforce in President Trump's massive government downsizing.
