Amy Paris worked for the federal government in various critical capacities for the past 10 years. She was critical to helping the Biden administration implement trans-inclusive policies and most recently served as deputy digital services lead in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where she oversaw organ donation safety.

Paris worked across five presidencies, rising to become one of the highest-ranking trans women in the federal government, second only to former Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, according to The 19th.

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GOP congressman tells furious federal workers being fired is part of God’s plan for them
The crowd did not like that at all.

But on February 14, she became one of the many federal employees fired by the Trump administration.

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“They said I was fired for performance,” Paris told The 19th. “I have clear evidence in multiple different ways that I was one of the highest-performing people in the entirety of the federal government.”

Paris believes her performance had nothing to do with her firing.

“They’re trying to actually not make the government more efficient, but disrupt the government and disrupt citizen services that the American people need in order to conduct their daily lives,” added Paris, who is currently considering legal options to contest her termination. “They are trying to sow discord and disrupt confidence in the workings of the federal government.” 

Paris has become a casualty in the series of mass layoffs inflicted by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk is an unelected official, and DOGE is not an actual government agency which would require congressional approval to bring into existence. To circumvent Congress, Trump has renamed the U.S. Digital Service as the U.S. DOGE DOGE Service (USDS).

Democrats have widely accused DOGE’s actions of being illegal and unconstitutional because Musk has independently hollowed out the agencies without any required approval from Congress. The Constitution notes that each agency’s budget is determined by congressional law and can only be changed by it as well. Workers dismissed by Musk have issued lawsuits to challenge their dismissals in court.

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