The IRS purge was the latest and most extensive batch of firings of federal employees in Philadelphia, part of a nationwide downsizing of the government workforce by the Trump administration that has reportedly hit more than 10,000 workers.

A tearful executive at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service told staffers on Thursday that about 6,000 employees would be fired, a person familiar with the matter said, in a move that would eliminate roughly 6% of the agency's workforce in the midst of the busy tax-filing season.