The senior security officials of the aid agency were licensed after denying access to the Musk team

The two senior security officials of the United States International Development Agency .

John Voorhees, Usaid Security Director, and his deputy are the last senior agency officials who will be presented with administrative license. Last week, those appointed by the Trump administration suspended about 60 high officials and fired hundreds of contractors. There has been spoken between current and previous employees and legislators of the agency that the agency could be subsumed within the State Department in a drastically reduced form.

The employees who worked for the task force of Mr. Musk who faced Mr. Voorhees sought to enter a safe area of ​​the agency’s offices to reach the classified material, two US officials said with knowledge of the incident. It is not clear exactly what Exchange took place between them and Mr. Voorhees, who could not be contacted immediately to comment.

Usaid, who is financed by Congress and takes some guidance from the State Department, has operated otherwise independently.

“USAID is a criminal organization,” Musk wrote on Sunday in a publication on the social networks that many help workers saw as confirmation that the agency would soon be absorbed by the State Department and that some saw as a potential threat to their safety staff. “It’s time to die.”

Usaid, who spent about $ 38.1 billion in health services, disaster relief, efforts against poverty and other foreign assistance programs in fiscal year 2023, represents less than 1 percent of the federal budget.

Several people who identified themselves as representatives of the so -called Efficiency Department of Mr. Musk’s government were on the site in Usaid last week, demanding access to the financial and personnel records of the agency, according to two US officials with knowledge Direct of the activity and the agency. Internal operation.

The cost reduction effort led by Mr. Musk, the richest man in the world, is not an apartment, but a working group that, however, has been granted an unusual power. An executive order signed by President Trump offers his workers without restrictions on government agencies. But in theory, employees would still need to obtain adequate security authorizations to access the classified material.

Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for the Almizcle initiative, He responded on Sunday to reports that security officials were pressed. “No classified material was accessed without adequate security authorizations,” said the clash that involved Mr. Voorhees was the first reported By CNN on Sunday.

A feeling of despair was establishing during the weekend among employees who remained in Usaid when they learned of the new suspensions and prepared for the potential of even more radical layoffs and a dismantling of the agency.

He The USAID website darkened On Saturday, and a smaller version of the online presence of the aid agency appeared on the website of the State Department, a possible indication of an imminent loss of the agency’s independence that employees anticipated that Trump would soon make official With an executive order. White House spokesmen did not immediately respond a request for comments.

Humanitarian legislators and workers also learned that at least some of the signs at the agency’s headquarters had been eliminated.

The State and USAID department did not immediately respond to comments requests.

The changes in progress have non -profit organizations that are backed by USAID, these groups were already staggering by the Trump administration decision to freeze almost all foreign aid programs, a measure that was slightly modified by a vague exemption posterior for programs that manage humanitarian aid that saves lives.

“An abrupt collapse of the agency would put the rights of millions of people around the world at a higher risk as a result,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International, in a statement. “What Usaid’s dismantling does not do is make someone safer or more prosperous. The congress must immediately intervene to challenge this. ”

Theodore Schleifer, Nicholas Nehamas and Stephanie Nolen Contributed reports.