IRS staff reductions nationwide trigger layoffs in Holtsville branch, employees say

Employees at the Holtsville branch of the Internal Revenue Service said staff reductions were ongoing Thursday, as the Trump administration moves to downsize the federal government and terminate 6,000 IRS employees nationwide.

Department of Homeland Security officers were dispatched to the office and patrolled the hallways while IRS employees awaited their official termination via email at their desks, according to an account from one employee to Newsday.

Another employee described a scene of chaos, confusion and heartbreak Thursday as scores of employees were laid off and escorted out of the building.

"It was very, like, morbid, “ said Jennafer Martens, 25, a Centereach resident who worked in the collections department. "When I come in, really there are so many people, so much laughter. There was nothing."

Instead, employees, many of them in tears, spent the day walking around and saying goodbye to each other as they absorbed the news, she said.

IRS managers confiscated their government badges, computers and other equipment, she said, estimating about 160 employees in her section alone were laid off.

Martens said she received a phone call at 5 p.m. Wednesday advising her she was going to be let go. She reported to the office at about 11:30 a.m. Thursday, and was escorted out of the building around 3 p.m. 

The loss of the job was devastating because she was planning on a career in the government in part to support her two children, including a 5-week-old baby, she said.

Martens had been working at the IRS for eight months and was close to the one-year cutoff where she may have avoided being laid off, she said.

"In my opinion, we brought home millions of dollars to the government, "she said. "We collected the money that is missing."

Stefano Garcia, of Garden City, who has been working at the Holtsville office for about four months as a clerk, said he was among those laid off and was taking the news in stride.

"I just accepted it," Garcia told Newsday as he took a break outside metal fences surrounding the office. "I have to do something else. I can't get upset about it."

The layoffs come as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, an office spearheaded by billionaire businessman and Trump aide Elon Musk, continues to slash federal jobs. The job cuts have mainly targeted probationary workers who have less than two years in their current roles.

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but The New York Times and Reuters reported late Wednesday that the 6,000 layoffs would commence on Thursday.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, when asked about the cuts at Thursday’s daily press briefing, said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent "is studying the matter" and believes there are ways to "improve" tax collection using technology.

The head of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS workers, blasted the timing of the layoffs as tax season ramps up.

"In the middle of a tax filing season, when taxpayers expect prompt customer service and smooth processing of their tax returns, the administration has chosen to decimate the whole operation by sending dedicated civil servants to the unemployment lines," said Doreen Greenwald, the union's national president.

Trump’s former IRS commissioner, Chuck Rettig, who led the agency during Trump’s first term, criticized the layoffs in a LinkedIn post.

"An underfunded IRS significantly benefits unidentified, noncompliant taxpayers at the direct expense of compliant taxpayers," Rettig wrote.

The IRS has several offices on the Island, including operations in Bethpage, Westbury and Holtsville, according to the agency’s website.

Officials with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, the agency that handles tax revenue collection for the state, said its operations were not impacted by the layoffs.

The agency, which has one main office in Hauppauge, said the processing of state tax returns won't be affected by the federal job cuts.

The state Labor Department said it "is aware from news reports" of the IRS layoffs, Aaron Fallon, spokesperson for the agency said in an email statement. He said the department's Rapid Response Team was "working to identify impacted employees to offer job search assistance."

"Federal agencies are not required to file WARN notices with the NYSDOL," Fallon said, referring to the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employers with 50 full-time employees or more to file a notice 90 days in advance with the state in the event of a mass layoff or closing.