USDA fires foreign workers from adversarial countries, including China, in national security protection move

The U S Department of Agriculture USDA reported Friday it had fired dozens of foreign contract workers from China Russia North Korea and Iran The cuts of about workers followed a national safeguard review for U S food safety A USDA spokesperson noted the contract workers came from countries of concern and will no longer be able to work on USDA projects The workers had been with the Agricultural Research Arrangement ARS the research arm of the USDA Thomas Henderson who represents the union for specific of the research workers recounted Reuters TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVES DECISIVELY TO BLOCK CHINA FROM 'WEAPONIZING' AMERICAN FARMLANDARS does research on areas of importance to American farmers such as pests food safety and setting change The majority of the contract workers were vetted Chinese post-doctoral researchers with specific even arriving to work this week to find out their badges no longer worked Earlier this month USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins reported in a new plan to keep U S farmland safe that contracts with any workers from China North Korea Iran and Russia should be canceled and nationals from those countries wouldn t be allowed to buy farmland in the U S All ARS project publications are also expected to be reanalyzed and those co-authored with researchers from the four countries will be denied Ethan Roberts an ARS employee who is also the president of the American Federation of Cabinet Employees Local union reported Reuters BROOKE ROLLINS FARM PRECAUTION IS NATIONAL SECURITYThe workers won t be able to be replaced until the Oct federal hiring freeze is lifted That will force various research projects to be halted Henderson announced citing a project to develop a vaccine for a deadly toxin that occurs in undercooked beef We don't have the talent now to progress on these research projects It's setting us back by years if not decades he communicated Reuters The agency is down about workers through downsizing efforts this year CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPFox News Digital has reached out to the USDA for comment Reuters contributed to this document