DENVER (KDVR) — A number of Internal Revenue Service in Denver are being let go as part of mass layoffs across the country Thursday.
The IRS fired 6,700 employees nationwide on Thursday, a government official told NewsNation. The layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s intensified efforts to shrink the federal workforce by laying off nearly all probationary employees who have not yet gained civil service protection.
Several employees who spoke to FOX31 said the number of layoffs in Denver could be up to 200 workers.
An IRS employee who spoke to FOX31 at 1999 N. Broadway in Denver Thursday morning said employees got an email Wednesday night to “bring in our equipment.”
“We’ve been kind of warned all week we would be fired,” the employee, who asked to only go by her first name, Arlene, said. “We’re all probationary employees. There’s about 121 of us that are being affected.”
Arlene said she was a contact representative who worked in collections. The agency has taken away all their systems to contact taxpayers. More than 5,000 of the fired staff members were auditors and collection staff dealing with tax compliance issues, NewsNation reported.
“Majority of us are very sad with what’s going on. Most of us don’t even know how we’re going to make our mortgage payment or our rent payments, how we’re even going to put food on the table,” she said. “Such a wrongful termination. This should not be happening. I don’t know where our congresspeople are, our senators, anybody fighting for us other than the union.”
Arlene said employees are left in the dark “waiting for the axe to come down.” She said the union that represents them is expected to file a wrongful termination suit.
Another employee, Osvaldo Delgado, told FOX31 they were hired under the assumption the agency was short-staffed and that’s why they were hired in the first place. He said about 200 people would be affected in Denver.
“They’re firing people; I thought we were short-staffed and now you’re firing us? That makes no sense,” Delgado said.
The layoffs come despite IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season being told earlier this month that they would not be allowed to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until mid-May, after the taxpayer filing deadline.
Delgado said tax season will be affected by this.
“It’s going to be bad,” Delgado said. “I have a feeling it’s just going to go progressively downhill from here.”
White House officials in a press briefing on Thursday suggested the thousands of fired IRS workers have been “ineffective” and said there will likely be more as DOGE improves IT at the IRS, Nexstar Washington, D.C. correspondent Raquel Martin reported.
WH suggests thousands of IRS workers being targeted for layoffs have been “ineffective” adding, there will likely be more firings as DOGE improves IT at the IRS
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
