Federal Agencies: Tracking the Toll
Two organizations are among those tracking the damage to federal government agencies and the toll on federal employees and services to the public that the current administration is inflicting.
Unbreaking
Unbreaking provides crowd-source summaries of the status of federal issues including immigration and transgender health care among others. While medical research and data security are covered, I noted science (including climate science) suppression, disinformation, and voter suppression as significant omissions. Also, the last updated dates vary, with the most recent being over a week ago. However, the explainer pages for each topic provide a handy summary and links to sources as well as a running compilation of past posts.
Particularly pertinent around Labor Day is its explainer on the federal workforce, which echoes many of the themes of Indivisible SF’s July 29 blog post on the topic. It provides a chronological summary of the administration's actions against federal employees and their unions, though maybe not up to the latest Executive Order issued August 28 that adds certain agencies to the list of those whose unions are excluded on dubious national security grounds.
Federal Harms Tracker: The Cost to Your Government
Providing more detailed tracking of the cuts to federal agencies, the Partnership for Public Service, a pro-government advocacy organization, has initiated the Federal Harms Tracker to “help the public, the media and policymakers better understand the scale and impact of the Trump administration’s drastic changes to the federal government”. Its first installment is a dashboard that shows total staffing reductions by month over time and a ranking of federal agencies by total reductions, among other statistics. Of course, companies in the private sector of the economy, notably in information technology, are laying off white-collar workers, so the public might expect that the public sector should be no different. But government is different: its primary motivation at least since the 1930s has been providing the greatest benefit to the greatest number, not the greatest profits to the corporations and the greatest stock dividends to the few investors. Upcoming products of the Federal Harms Tracker will quantify costs to communities and the overall economy, which may clarify that difference.
Among the cuts to federal agency workers, the Trump administration has been firing immigration judges. Immigration judges are part of the Justice Department, and are employed by the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts. Many judges are represented by the union IFTPE, which has been speaking out and taking action with lawsuits.
In a news release the IFPTE stated that 15 judges were fired “without cause” on Friday, July 11 and another two on Monday, July 14. “It’s outrageous and against the public interest that at the same time Congress has authorized 800 immigration judges, we are firing large numbers of immigration judges without cause,” said the union's President Matt Biggs. "This is nonsensical. The answer is to stop firing and start hiring.”
The IFPTE union said they are working in courts in California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
References
Trump administration fires 17 immigration court judges across ten states, union says
Trump administration fires 17 immigration court judges across ten states, union says, NBC Bay Area, July 15, 2025
More immigration judges are being fired amid Trump's efforts to speed up deportations, NPR, July 15, 2025
IFPTE Condemns Trump Administration’s Attack on Federal Workers
IFPTE Condemns Trump Administration’s Latest Attack on Federal Workers and Their Unions, IFPTE, August 28, 2025
DOJ rocked by wave of Trump firings, The Hill, July 20, 2025
“San Francisco Immigration Judge Speaks Out After Firing”, NBC Bay Area, 7/23/25
H.R.1, “Big Beautiful Bill Act”