This week at Unbreaking, September 12
This week we’re tracking a number of (hopefully, temporary) wins for the administration in their ongoing detention efforts, plus how the consequences of the massive cuts to the federal workforce are now becoming plain.
Immigration
Several legal rulings changed the status of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and detention actions: Racial profiling in California immigration raids is fine with the Supreme Court, federal troops can be deployed in California for law enforcement, and the Everglades detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” can continue operating while an environmental case proceeds — all at least temporary wins for the administration. On the other hand, a federal judge has blocked expedited removals of many immigrants in the interior of the US without due process.
We also saw an ICE raid at a South Korean–owned battery factory in Georgia resulting in nearly 500 arrests (mostly of South Korean nationals), the establishment of an ICE detention center at Angola prison, and a second failed attempt to censure Representative LaMonica McIver over her clash with ICE agents during an observation visit to a detention center in New Jersey.
Our Immigration timeline is tracking these events and about 170 more.
Equality at work
The administration’s decimation of the federal workforce is having predictable consequences: severe staff shortages have been reported at the VA, while the IRS and State Department are both making plans to hire and recall workers after layoffs have left them unable to perform basic services. In the same vein, the acting head of DOGE, Amy Gleason, complained that, “There’s not enough tech talent here. We need more of it.” This comes months after DOGE shuttered 18F, the federal government’s prestigious tech agency. An official with the Office of Personnel Management confirmed what we already knew, that the federal government will be slashed by nearly 300,000 workers by the end of 2025 — the largest reduction in a single year since World War II. All of these cuts were supposed to save money: Elon Musk initially promised DOGE would save $2 trillion, but federal spending is up 6.8%, or $358 billion, this year, and an investigation showed that DOGE cuts are responsible for only $1.4 billion in savings. Those meager savings will be more than offset by a predicted $500 billion in lost revenue due to turmoil and staffing shortages at the IRS.
The upshot: the federal government is spending more money but is less able to deliver on basic services, while federal job cuts are contributing to a worsening labor market. We have the full story in our explainer.
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