WASHINGTON-Paul Osadebe still has his job as a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but so many of his coworkers have lost their jobs that he said it is endangering the mission of providing housing and revitalizing communities.

The San Francisco federal judge who previously ordered the rehiring of 16,000 federal workers who had been fired by the Trump administration told federal agencies Friday to notify the workers that they had not been fired for poor performance — as claimed in the government’s form letter — but as part of a “mass termination.