After an hourlong hearing this afternoon, Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump appointee, said he plans to issue a temporary restraining order that prevents President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency from placing 2,200 employees on administrative leave Friday night.

Nichols said the TRO would also prevent the "accelerated removal" of USAID from their posts overseas. He will issue a written order between now and midnight with a further explanation of the order.

"This is about how employees are harmed in their capacity as employees, in the employee-employer relationship, and it seems to me that, for reasons I will discuss in this order, that I will enter there, the plaintiffs have established at least that there is irreparable harm as it relates to that relationship," Nichols said.

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders, Peter Charalambous and Alexander Mallin

Early internal estimates suggest that the effort by the Trump administration to recall thousands of USAID employees from foreign assignments to the United States will cost as much as $50 million, multiple federal employees familiar with the process told ABC News.

The operation impacts around 1,800 USAID employees stationed abroad, along with nearly 3,000 family members, sources told ABC News, all of whom have been ordered to return to the U.S. within days.

USAID staff overseas have 30 days to return and can apply for exceptions for family or health reasons, sources said.

The cost could fluctuate depending on how the recall plan evolves, according to sources.

It is not clear how much the Trump administration estimates will be saved by cutting USAID.

A State Department representative did not respond to a request for comment.

-ABC News' Will Steakin and Shannon Kingston

Senate Democrats are pushing for an "independent investigation" into reports that Elon Musk and DOGE were granted "unprecedented and potentially illegal access to the federal government's payment systems."

In a letter to Loren Sciurba, the Deputy Inspector General of Treasury and Heather Hill, the Acting Treasury IG for Tax Administration, the senators said they have so far received from Treasury Secretary Bessent in response to their inquiries have "left more questions than answers" and left a need for an IG investigation.

"It is critically important to understand what systems were involved, who granted access to them, what type of access was permitted, exactly who gained the ability to get into the systems, and the reason they were allowed to access such sensitive information," they wrote.

The senators said it is "not at all clear" that Musk and other DOGE officials meet criteria that would allow them to access the data included in the federal payment system.

They also raised conflict of interest concerns about Musk's businesses, including Tesla, SpaceX and X.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

Nearly 11,000 people have been deported from the U.S. to Mexico since Trump’s inauguration, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday.

Since Jan. 20, 10,964 people -- including 8,425 Mexicans and 2,539 people of other nationalities -- have been deported to Mexico, she said.