The Department of Interior is preparing mass layoffs beginning Monday despite a federal judge’s order prohibiting firings due to the shutdown, a federal employee union said Thursday.
The American Federation of Government Employees said in a court filing that its attorneys learned through “multiple credible sources” that the Department of the Interior is preparing to move forward with a widespread reduction in force on Oct. 20.
The union in its filing said it reached out to the government’s attorneys to confirm the Oct. 20 layoffs and received a response saying only that the government would produce the information by a Friday deadline.
Judge Susan Illston of the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted the union‘s request for an urgent hearing on Friday, in addition to moving up the deadline for the government to disclose its layoff plans to 11 a.m. Pacific time.
Illston had issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday prohibiting federal agencies from engaging in additional reductions in force and requiring the government to produce a list of employees fired during the shutdown and any future layoffs by 5 p.m. Friday.
The Trump administration had already fire more than 4,100 workers at nearly half a dozen agencies last Friday, which didn’t include the Department of the Interior. Illston’s restraining order included all agencies where AFGE members worked.
The case is AFGE v. OMB, N.D. Cal., No. 3:25-cv-08302, 10/16/25.
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