USAID workers told to leave; PEPFAR funding protesters arrested
Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Several protesters were arrested Wednesday after U.S. Agency for International Development workers were told via a text message to pack their belongings and leave on Tuesday.
"All staff and their property will undergo magnetometer and X-ray machine screening upon entry. Staff will then be escorted to their workspace, where they will be permitted to collect their personal items and given approx [sic] 15 minutes to complete this retrieval and must be finished removing items within their time slot only," the message told workers on Tuesday, WPRI reported.
The message said USAID workers must bring their own boxes, tape or other containers needed to remove their personal items.
The Trump administration on Sunday announced 1,600 USAID workers would be fired and another 4,200 would be placed on administrative leave.
USAID reported having 14,000 employees prior to the Trump administration officials announcing their intent to dismantle the federal agency.
The administration's efforts triggered a protest Wednesday at the Cannon House Office Building, where Capitol Police arrested about 21 protestors opposed to a freeze on funding for foreign aid, including the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the New York Times reported.
Several protesters carried signs and wore shirts that read: "Stop The Deadly Global AID Freeze" with a red hand print depicted and "Save PEPFAR Now!"
USAID administered PEPFAR funding prior to the funding freeze and the agency's current dismantling by the Trump administration.
U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., Judge Amir Ali on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to end its funding freeze on foreign aid by midnight Wednesday after administration officials ignored a prior court order made 12 days earlier, NPR reported.
Ali on Feb. 13 ordered the Trump administration to release hundreds of millions of dollars in USAID payments for international projects, but those funds have not been released.
The funds were not released as of Tuesday, but Ali declined to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court and instead gave it through Wednesday to release the frozen funds.
The frozen funds include PEPFAR funding for HIV prevention and treatment services in 55 nations, Public Health Newswire reported.
The Department of State on Feb. 1 limited PEPFAR funding to focus on preventing AIDS transmission between mothers and their children.
The limited PEPFAR funding could lead to more than 600,000 HIV-related deaths and 565,000 new HIV infections in South Africa, according to a study published Feb. 11 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The funding freeze also endangers the continued use of HIV prevention drug lenacapavir, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved for use in the United States but is targeted for use in 2 million people overseas.
The State Department indicated PEPFAR funding accounts for 90% of the medication's use around the globe.
"Activists have spent four decades fighting for expanded government investment to prevent, treat and ultimate end HIV," Treatment Action Group Executive Director Mark Harrington said in a statement on Feb. 6.
"We're unwilling to stand by and let the new administration destroy decades of progress against one of the world's deadliest pandemics."
Members of HIV/AIDS advocacy group Housing Works also protested the freeze in PEPFAR funding on Feb. 6 in Washington, D.C.
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