DHS calling furloughed staff back to work despite shutdown

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is recalling all furloughed Department of Homeland Security staff to report to their next scheduled shift, despite the ongoing partial government shutdown.

In an official message sent to DHS employees late Friday afternoon, staff were told that “all DHS employees, excepted and non-excepted/non-exempt” are to be returned “to a work and paid status, effective on your next regularly scheduled duty day.”

DHS has been operating under a shutdown since Feb. 14, as Congress has yet to agree to a fiscal 2026 funding measure for the department. Many DHS staff are “excepted” and required to work through the shutdown, but thousands of civilian employees have been furloughed.

“Employees who are unable to report for duty on their next scheduled workday must request leave and receive approval from their supervisors,” today’s message states. “Employees that do not follow this process may be subject to administrative or disciplinary action.”

The recall comes after President Donald Trump earlier this month directed DHS to use funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to pay civilian employees, including furloughed staff, who had not received paychecks through the shutdown.

In a message to employees earlier this week, DHS said employees covered under Trump’s order would receive backpay through April 4. But DHS added that “any additional compensation owed to you will be paid once D.H.S. funding is restored” by Congress, sparking concerns that the same DHS employees will again have to go without pay.

“DHS is using available funds to ensure employees are paid,” today’s message states. “Should the department exhaust currently available funds before an FY 2026 appropriation is enacted, you will receive a new notification of your work status at that time.”

The recall comes as House Republicans remain split on a Senate-passed plan they had previously rejected to fund most of DHS, except for immigration enforcement operations. Trump is calling on Congressional Republicans to use a party-line vote to pass immigration enforcement and border security funding separately.

Democrats have consistently maintained they are only willing to fund the immigration enforcement components of DHS if reforms are made to CBP and ICE’s enforcement policies and procedures.

“For nearly 8 weeks, Democrats prevented many DHS employees from being paid and tens of thousands of employees have been furloughed and not able to do the work that is critical to the protecting our homeland,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “Secretary Mullin will be utilizing available funding to recall the entire DHS workforce to get our patriotic employees back to work.”

“Their paychecks are now being processed and employees may already be seeing this money deposited,” the statement continues. “The easiest way to make sure the hard-working men and women of DHS are paid going forward is for the Democrats to immediately reopen DHS.”

DHS’s move to recall employees raises further questions about circumventing Congress to effectively re-open the department during a lapse in appropriations. As of late Friday afternoon, several DHS components were scrambling to provide further guidance on the recall.

“Unprecedented territory here,” one DHS employee told Federal News Network. “Just because salaries are being covered, doesn’t mean the work and programs they work on are excepted.”

It also remains unknown when DHS will run out of alternative funding sources. In addition to civilian employees, Trump also directed DHS to use available funding to pay Transportation Security Administration staff late last month. DHS law enforcement officers and Coast Guard service members have received full pay throughout the shutdown thanks to funding from last year’s tax and reconciliation bill.

The recall will see approximately 1,200 employees at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – roughly 60% of CISA’s workforce – return to work after being furloughed.

At the Coast Guard, officials have testified that nearly 75% of civilian specialists, including experts in finance, contracting and information technology, have been furloughed.

DHS’s shutdown plan also shows that about half of the department’s management directorate and more than 75% of employees within the office of the secretary would expect to be on furlough during a lapse in appropriations.

At DHS’s Office of Inspector General, roughly 450 of the 760 staff at the OIG get furloughed, per the shutdown plan.

And the vast majority of DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate is typically sent home during a shutdown, according to the document.

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