San Antonio protesters gather last week to protest the Trump administration’s drastic federal job cuts. Credit: Anthony Dominic Tamayo

San Antonio U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and dozens of other Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers after the Trump White House’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs fired more than 1,000 workers at the agency.

In a letter addressed to VA Secretary Doug Collins, they accused the the administration of playing “reckless political games to undermine the care and benefits our veterans have earned.” It also admonished Collins that the job cuts affect many service-disabled veterans and military spouses along with medical researchers.

“The Administration’s late-night actions on February 13, 2025, to terminate over 1,000 dedicated federal civil servants at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) directly contradicts your recent testimony before the U.S. Senate, where you said, ‘I want to strengthen VA so it works better for America’s heroes, and I will embrace your oversight and seek your counsel as we work together to do just that,'” the lawmakers wrote.

“This Administration may believe it can run government agencies the way Elon Musk gutted Twitter — by arbitrarily slashing staff and expecting operations to somehow function seamlessly — but VA is not a tech start-up, and veterans are not an experiment,” the letter added.

It’s still unclear how many of the cuts are at Texas VA facilities, according to Geneva Fuentes, a spokeswoman for Castro’s office, who added that VA officials haven’t yet responded to the letter.

However, Fuentes added that the officials with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) told Castro’s office that 87 workers at San Antonio VA facilities took an early buyout offer from the agency while at least two employees were fired.

The VA’s San Antonio-area operations include the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital in San Antonio, the Kerrville VA Medical Center and more than a dozen area clinics, according to its website. AFGE’s Local 3511 represents some 2,700 VA workers in the Alamo City.

VA officials told the Express-News on Thursday that the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, Houston’s Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Central Texas Veterans Health Care System sites in Austin, Waco and Temple, “each dismissed a small number of probationary staff.” The agency wouldn’t divulge how many.

Fuentes said the cuts affecting probationary employees — or those who have been on the job for less than one or two years, depending on the position — are likely to hit military spouses especially hard since they tend to move to new locations frequently due to reassignments.

While 64% of military spouses want to work, nearly one in five report being unable to do so, according to a 2023 Defense Department study on force demographics.

“This is going to create a large retention problem for the military,” Fuentes said.

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This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2025.

Sanford Nowlin is editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Current. He holds degrees from Trinity University and the University of Texas at San Antonio, and his work has been featured in Salon, Alternet, Creative...