New Mexico federal workers fired
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NEW MEXICO (KOAT) — Officials say they still don’t know the total number of New Mexicans who were fired, laid off, or furloughed last week as federal workers from multiple government agencies were terminated from their jobs. It comes as President Donald Trump’s administration aims to cut “wasteful government spending” by shrinking the workforce.
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury told KOAT on Thursday her office is aware of a quarter of the staff at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, also known as SIPI, who was fired in the middle of the workday on Valentine’s Day.
Several dozen U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education workers were also terminated, Stansbury said.
“We know that the military is actively looking at downsizing the military budget by 8 percent,” Stansbury said. “That means that we have both civilians and potentially active duty military who are going to be fired in the next several weeks.”
Pearl Yellowman was previously the vice president of operations at SIPI and was three months away from finishing her federal probation period. She says she was in a meeting when she found out she was being fired.
Workers who are veterans, American Indians, or Alaska natives are eligible for preference when seeking employment with specific government agencies. It also means those workers must complete a two-year probation period when they are newly hired, transferred or promoted.
Arielle Pines was working at the Department of Veterans Affairs in New Mexico for a total of over 15 years, she told CNN in an interview.
“I’m just devastated by this termination,” Pines said.
She had just moved to a new department at the VA and was on a standard probationary period. It was the fifth probationary period she’s been put on since working at the VA.
“There have been many of us that have been let go that have 15, 18, 25 years of service and that they didn’t look at our computation dates when they did this mass firing,” Pines said.
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