Washington – A federal program designed to prevent specific violence and terrorism in the United States has lost 20% of its staff after layoffs reached their test employees.
The Programs and Association Center of the Prevention Center was a redefined version of the programs created after September 11, 2001, attacks as a way of identifying people who could represent new threats of terrorism or carrying out violence and preventing tragedies by obtaining help. It has a mission that recruits parents, coaches, teachers and ministers to avoid problems before you start training to search for signs of problems in advance.
That work became much more difficult after eight center staff members were fired in early March as part of the Trump administration efforts to cut the government get rid of trial employees. According to an employee of the National Security Department and a central employee who was fired, the employees were again hired on Monday night, but then they were placed on administrative license, following Two judicial decisions of March 13 ordering the Republican Administration to collect dismissed probation employees.
The administration promised to fight against decisions. The employees spoke on condition of anonymity of the concerns that they could be a compensation.
The center director confirmed the endings in a statement to Associated Press. William Braniff said that with his appointment for the director’s work soon, he decided the best he could do for the employees and for the center it was “to resign together with them, since some agencies and departments have understood people in the critical mission offices once they realized the implications of those terminations.”
Braniff said there is a great demand for the assistance provided by the center, called CP3 to abbreviate.
“CP3 is the heir of the primary and founder of the DHS, to prevent terrorism,” he said, adding that the center’s approach “is as effective in preventing school shootings as it is for the prevention of terrorism.”
In a publication on LinkedIn before giving up, Braniff said that requests for subsidies last year increased 82% and 27 states were aligned to work with the center to create plans to address directed violence and prevent terrorism; 16 states already had plans in place or were creating them.
Finished employees included former social workers, mental health professionals and state public health officials. Before the layoffs there had been more than 40 staff members in the center, with most in Washington, DC
In a statement, national security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said that President Donald Trump is leading an effort to make “cuts and reforms” throughout the federal government to get rid of ” Atrocious waste and incompetence. ”
She said that department leaders “identified the non -critical personnel of missions in the test status” and added: “The DHS remains focused on supporting the application of the law and public safety through financing, training, the greatest public awareness and associations.”
Tom Warrick, a former anti -terrorism official of National Security who is now in the Atlantic Council, said the center, launched in 2021 under the Biden administration, intended to develop projects that try to identify people before they become violent, regardless of ideology or motivation, and guide them to help through community health programs.
Warrick said the center has been doing a “pioneer” job and that the reward is “huge” in terms of shootings and attacks avoided.
“What they really need to do is expand it, not reduce it,” he said.
Subsidies provide funds to state, local, tribal and territorial governments, non -profit organizations and educational institutions to help them establish or grow their own programs to address specific violence and terrorism.
The center replaced the Trump era for directed violence and terrorism prevention, which in itself replaced a program of the Obama era called Countering Violent Extremism. The previous iterations of the program were criticized for unfairly attacking the Muslim and minority communities, and critics said it was difficult to measure the results.
Some of those concerns still remain, said Spencer Reynolds, main lawyer of the National Security and Freedom program of the Brennan Center. Said the center of Brennan has had concerns for a long time on the protections of the civil liberties of the program. Even with the emphasis on bringing public health suppliers, he said, there is still too much emphasis on the application of the law.
Last year, the center announced $ 18 million in subsidy funds to 35 recipients.
These subsidies included $ 700,000 to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, since it worked to “increase the consciousness of the community of the signals that someone can be on a path to violence.” Another $ 344,982 went to Southwest Texas Fusion Center to help him expand his evaluation and management of behavioral evaluation and management team to cover more counties in southwest Texas, where he works to help schools reduce violence.
