BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Thousands of federal government employees have been laid off since President Donald Trump took office in January, including some in Bexar County.

While the exact number of those affected is unclear, recent governmental changes have significantly impacted the local workforce.

Bexar County resident Ashley Smith is a single mother of two and an Air Force veteran who is a former federal government employee.

“(The job) is what I thought would be the perfect work-from-home as a single mom,” Smith said.

However, her tenure was cut short when Trump’s administration initiated a reduction in force (RIF), the formal term for layoffs in the federal government. This came as the Department of Government Efficiency began identifying “waste” within several agencies.

“Elon is doing a great job,” Trump previously said in February. “He’s finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste. You see it with the USAID, but you’re going to see it even more so with other agencies and other parts of government.”

Smith was part of an agency that was hit with a reduction in force soon after Trump made this statement.

She was a probationary employee, meaning she had been in her role for less than two years, along with thousands of others. However, Smith was also part of a protected union.

“They told me specifically that I was covered by being a part of the union,” Smith said. “So they said I wasn’t going anywhere.”

However, a directive from human resources in February advised her that she was one of those thousands who no longer had a job.

“They didn’t even help me with the process of even the separation part. They just said, ‘You’re out, and they said to clock out by five.‘”

The reduction in force is something Trump is touting as a positive.

“It’s a big, tremendous saving,” Trump said. “We want to downsize government but make it better.”

However, on March 17, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a temporary restraining order that would reinstate Smith and thousands of other probationary workers to their previous positions until a legal battle is complete.

“They’re gonna (sic) give me the retroactive pay effective the date of the separation of February 27th,” Smith read from an email.

Three days later, it appeared that it wouldn’t be happening, she said. Smith received another letter from her HR department formally rescinding the notice of reinstating her employment status.

The email apologized for any confusion and instructed Smith to contact the division chief at the Employee Relations Division with any questions.

“You’re playing with people’s lives,” Smith said. “And I have two kids. I’m a single parent. I can’t go up and down, up and down, and you tell me I got the job back, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, now I’m taking it again.‘”

It’s unclear what the next steps will look like, but Smith said she’s hoping she’ll be able to return to her position or receive back pay for the last month of being laid off.

She’s also hopeful that if they cannot reinstate her to her position, they will place her in another role per her understanding of an agreement with the federal government job force.

Read also: