Washington Attorney General Nick Brown speaks during a news conference announcing that Washington will join a federal lawsuit to challenge President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship on Tuesday. — AP WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Agencies): US President Donald Trump and his team have acted with stunning speed to begin removing or sidelining hundreds of government workers, while he has also sought to give himself the power to fire hundreds of thousands more.
The Republican president has been in office less than a week but the wrecking ball he has already taken to parts of the US government has sent shock waves through much of America's federal bureaucracy.
At the National Security Council 160 staffers have been sent home. About 20 senior career attorneys at the Justice Department were reassigned. The heads of the US Coast Guard and Transportation Security Administration were fired along with other officials.
Government offices focused on workforce diversity are being permanently shuttered, the staff on leave, while a flurry of executive orders overturning Biden administration policy have left many officials uncertain about their futures, their mandate erased by a blunt stroke of Trump's signature Sharpie marker.
Trump said on Tuesday he also plans to fire over 1,000 officials appointed by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about government worker concerns.
During his presidential election campaign Trump frequently pledged to slash the size of government and rid it of bureaucrats deemed insufficiently loyal to his political agenda.
Still, the speed of Trump's swift and coordinated moves targeting workers at a swath of government agencies shocked federal employees in Washington and even public sector unions who had spent months anticipating Trump's arrival.
Meanwhile, US authorities arrested 538 migrants and deported hundreds in a mass operation just days into President Donald Trump's second administration, his press secretary said late Thursday.
"The Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals," Karoline Leavitt said in a post on social platform X, adding "hundreds" were deported by military aircraft.
"The largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway. Promises made. Promises kept," she said.
Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States.
On Thursday Newark city mayor Ras J. Baraka said in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents "raided a local establishment... detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant."
The mayor said one of those detained during the raid was a US military veteran, "this egregious act is in plain violation" of the US Constitution.
Federal judge blocks Trump bid to restrict birthright citizenship
A federal judge blocked Donald Trump's attempt to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States on Thursday as liberal states scored their first victory against the new president's hardline agenda.
The ruling imposes a 14-day stay on the enforcement of one of the most controversial executive orders Trump signed in the hours after he was sworn into office for a second term.
"This is a blatantly unconstitutional order," US District Judge John Coughenour was reported as saying during the hearing in Washington state.
"I've been on the bench for over four decades, I can't remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is," said Coughenour, who was appointed by a Republican president, Ronald Reagan.
Trump told reporters his administration would "obviously" appeal the ruling, while the Department of Justice said it would defend the executive order, which a spokesman said "correctly interprets" the US Constitution.
Trump to meet Putin 'immediately' to secure end
of Ukraine war
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wanted to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as possible to secure an end to the war with Ukraine and expressed a desire to work towards cutting nuclear arms.
In the run-up to his Nov 5 election victory, Trump declared many times that he would have a deal in place between Ukraine and Russia on his first day in office, if not before.
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