Federal Tech Workers Refuse to 'Dismantle Critical Public Services' and Mass Resign from Elon Musk's DOGE

Over 20 civil service employees resigned from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services” on Tuesday, Feb. 25, in a joint resignation letter obtained by PEOPLE.

The 21 employees, consisting of engineers, data scientists, designers and product managers, issued the resignation letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. 

DOGE was formerly known as the United States Digital Service (USDS) before it was renamed during President Donald Trump’s second administration. It was created by President Barack Obama’s administration "to change our government's approach to technology," per the official site.

“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the 21 staffers wrote in the resignation letter. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

“We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services,” the letter continued. “We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE's actions.”

The letter also cited several incidents that contributed to their resignation. Beginning one day after Trump was inaugurated, citing on Tuesday, Jan. 21, the now-resigned employees completed 15-minute interviews with individuals wearing White House visitor badges. 

They note that several of these interviewers refused to identify themselves and ”asked questions about political loyalty, attempted to pit colleagues against each other, and demonstrated limited technical ability.” Adding, “This process created significant security risks.”

The group wrote the Trump administration and Musk decided on Friday, Feb. 14 to fire around one-third of the workforce — including those who worked in Social Security, veterans’ services, tax filing, health care, disaster relief and student aid.

“Their removal endangers millions of Americans who rely on these services every day. The sudden loss of their technology expertise makes critical systems and America’s data less safe,” the letter read.

The letter noted that beginning Sunday, Feb. 16, “DOGE representatives began integrating us into their efforts.” As a result, the organization fired technical experts, mishandled sensitive data and broke critical systems, which "contradicted their stated mission of ‘modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,’" per the letter. 

“These actions are not compatible with the mission we joined the United States Digital Service to carry out: to deliver better services to the American people through technology and design,” the letter read.

Musk replied to the Associated Press’ reporting and corresponding social media posts on X (formerly known as Twitter). “More fake news from Associated Propaganda. These were Dem political holdovers who refused to return to the office. They would have been fired had they not resigned,” he said in a post on X:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the mass resignation in a statement, per the Associated Press.

“Anyone who thinks protests, lawsuits, and lawfare will deter President Trump must have been sleeping under a rock for the past several years,” Leavitt said. “President Trump will not be deterred from delivering on the promises he made to make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the hardworking American taxpayers.”

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A representative for the Department of Government Efficiency did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information on Tuesday.