a The Minnesota veteran recalls the moment she found work in the Veterans Benefits Administration after two traumatic brain injuries in an overseas deployment where she stood before hundreds of people and five Democratic state attorney general on Thursday night.
“All I was given was a post-it note,” Joy Marver said. “The Post-It Notes only included the HR email address and the supervisor phone number. This is from an external source. Doge ended me. No one in my chain of orders knew I had been fired. No one knew.
The fire was so disrupted that she thought about kicking the truck off the bridge, but instead said she entered the VA for crisis care.
“Don’t fuck a veteran,” she concluded.
The story is one of many people shared by former federal workers and others influenced by Trump administration policies at City Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota, part of a nationwide tour that provided a way to dissatisfaction over Donald Trump’s first two months, and also provided a way to gather evidence of ongoing lawsuits, filed by around ten Trump administrators in total.
“Everyone has a double duty. But the point is, we absolutely protect it. We got four and a half years of gas in the tank, and we’re here to fight for the American people all the time,” Ellison told reporters before the event began.
The community impact, like they’re calling them, kicked off in Arizona earlier this month and continued in Oregon, Colorado, Vermont and New York, the Attorney General said. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Chris Mays of Arizona, Letia James of New York, Matthew Platkin of New Jersey and Kwame Raul of Illinois attended an event in Minnesota on Thursday, where crowds were overflowing with high school auditors.
Participants were given the opportunity to take the microphone and share their stories.
Another veteran who worked in the veteran benefits administration was fired by email for Elon Musk’s so-called “government efficiency,” she said. She was part of the Probation Employee Purge, and her supervisors didn’t know she had been let go. She recalled that her boss’s response to her shooting was “WTF.”
A probation employee at a federal agency without a name said she was let go too. She interviewed and did background checks for 11 months to secure a federal role. “Now we are forced to start a family and plan to own a home indefinitely, and this mess of this dream will be felt for the rest of our lives,” she said.
A former employee of the 18th floor, a federal digital services agency, said he was fired in the middle of the night over the weekend. “I’m sad. We didn’t deserve this,” they said. The former USAID worker said she saw Doge pass through the agency, access the files and threaten the employee who threatened her if she spoke up before she was fired.
After several probation employees shared their stories, the Mays of Arizona cut to ask if the Trump administration or their agency reached out to rehire them. The Democratic attorney general secured victory in these firing cases, and the judge determined they needed to be resurrected. If that wasn’t happening, Maze said, they need to know.
“We can bring about a reinforcement movement,” Ellison explained. “We could probably bring about a light emptying allegation. There are a lot of things, but if we don’t know that, we certainly can’t do anything.”
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Before the city hall began, the Attorney General said he had secured a temporary restraining order that would halt or reverse the Trump administration’s instructions in almost every previous incident. In some instances, they had to submit additional measures to make the administration comply with the order. For example, if you terminated the “suspension” of federal grants, the suspension ended, but some programs have not yet been restarted. James said motions must be filed to force those programs to run again.
Trans people shared how the Trump administration’s neglect to their communities is affecting them. A young trans athlete was kicked out of the softball team, and her mother shared it. Transveterans were worried about access to life-saving healthcare. Doctors who treat trans young people said patients had the advantage.
People from immigrants and mixed status families spoke about the ghosts of deportation and how threats were looming every day. One woman said her mother’s partner had been deported, just like her mother’s uncle. She worries every day about whether her mother will be next. “The Trump administration has had a deep impact on me over the past two months alone, but if my family continues to hurt my family, I’m so bad that I have to be more organized than ever,” she said.
Suzanne Kelly, CEO of Minnesota Church Council, said her organization, which helps refugees resettle, has lost $4 million in federal funds sent directly to clients. She had to fire 26 employees, most of which were refugees or Asili herself. The refugees who had hoped they would help are now stuck abroad in refugee camps, she said. Those already here will lose rental assistance and other assistance.
“Whatever your traditions of faith are, pray with us for those individuals, and pray with us for this country. We are better than this,” Kelly said.
After two hours of testimony, Minnesota activists rose to share their vision for their future paths.
