A Washington court ordered Trump to restore foreign aid

^{Photo: ABC News}
A federal judge in Washington ordered the administration of US President Donald Trump to revoke an executive order that suspended foreign aid programs for 90 days and to resume such programs accordingly.

According to the Associated Press (AP), this is the first decision related to the suspension of funding by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Federal Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary injunction in a lawsuit filed by two international organizations funded by USAID - the AIDS Vaccine Alliance and the World Health Organization, citing "the widespread harm that the sudden suspension of aid has caused to organizations abroad."

"Previously, Trump administration officials have argued that such funding programs should be stopped. However, they have "provided no explanation" as to why a complete halt to foreign aid was the only reasonable solution and have failed to demonstrate that they had a legitimate reason to ignore the many small and large organizations that were on the verge of closure due to the funding cut," Judge Ali said.

A U.S. District Court judge in the District of Columbia on February 7 blocked the Trump administration's plans to fire and place about 2,700 USAID employees on administrative leave. In addition, it was ordered that 500 employees who had already been furloughed be reinstated.

According to American media reports, Washington District Judge Carl Nichols granted the request of two labor unions that argued that such actions were unlawful. He ordered the implementation of the Washington plans to be suspended until February 14 in order to allow the Trump administration to review the evidence to determine the legality of its actions.

The unions' lawsuit alleges that the U.S. government's actions to obstruct USAID's operations have "caused a global humanitarian crisis, abruptly halted the critical work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors," and caused thousands of job losses, as well as "endangering U.S. national security interests." The lawsuit says that only Congress can dissolve the agency, and that the Trump administration's actions are "unconstitutional and unlawful."

Trump had previously said he would freeze all USAID projects for 90 days and fire nearly all employees and dissolve the agency.

"Of the 10,000 people working for the agency worldwide, only 290 are planned to remain, mostly in health care and humanitarian assistance," The New York Times reported.

The Trump administration has accused USAID of not only wasteful spending but also of funding projects related to al-Qaeda and drug production in Afghanistan. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”