KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The U.S. State Department fired more than 1,300 employees last week in line with a reorganization plan from the Trump administration.

The department sent layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the United States, according to a senior department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs, according to an internal notice obtained by The Associated Press. For most civil servants, the separation period is 60 days, it said.

“In connection with the departmental reorganization … the department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities,” the notice says. “Headcount reductions have been carefully tailored to affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found from centralization or consolidation of functions and responsibilities.”

While lauded by President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their Republican allies as overdue and necessary to make the department leaner, more nimble and more efficient, the cuts have been criticized by current and former diplomats who say they will weaken American influence and its ability to counter existing and emerging threats abroad.

The Trump administration has pushed to reshape American diplomacy and worked to shrink the size of the federal government, including mass dismissals driven by the Department of Government Efficiency and moves to dismantle entire departments such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Education Department.

USAID, the six-decade-old foreign assistance agency, was absorbed into the State Department earlier this month after the administration dramatically slashed foreign aid funding.

A recent ruling by the Supreme Court cleared the way for the layoffs to start, while lawsuits challenging the legality of the cuts continue to play out.

The job cuts are large but considerably less than many had anticipated.

In a May letter notifying Congress about the reorganization, the department said it had a little more than 18,700 United States-based employees and was looking to reduce the workforce by 18 percent through layoffs and voluntary departures, including deferred resignation programs.

Rubio said officials took “a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.”

“It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions,” he told reporters last week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he attended the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum. “Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.”

He said some of the cuts will be unfilled positions or those that are about to be vacant because an employee took an early retirement.