Tens of thousands of employees at the Department of Homeland Security are reporting to work without pay or have been furloughed for weeks because of a partial government shutdown, forcing them to take on a major financial burden.
The lack of pay led to clogged security lines at airports in recent weeks as large numbers of Transportation Security Administration employees did not show up at work. Those officers began receiving back pay this week. But many other federal employees, including those working on emergency response and cybersecurity threats, have missed paychecks since the department’s funding lapsed on Feb. 14.
Roughly half of the department’s more than 260,000 employees are getting regular paychecks throughout the lapse. At least 120,000 law enforcement officers who work for the department have continued to be paid, along with certain support staff members, because of funding in President Trump’s major domestic policy bill.
Here is what to know about how the partial government shutdown is affecting the department’s staff.
Who is getting paid at D.H.S.?
The department has continued to pay the roughly 22,000 officers at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Law enforcement officers at Customs and Border Protection and the Secret Service are also being paid, along with more than 40,000 U.S. Coast Guard military personnel.
Some employees who work closely with law enforcement officers have also continued to be paid, including forensic support technicians and information technology specialists supporting field operations.
Around 60,000 T.S.A. employees were reporting to work without pay for weeks, but Mr. Trump signed a memo last week directing the department to pay them. On Monday, Department of Homeland Security officials said that most T.S.A. employees had been sent back pay that covered two full paychecks, though they were still owed another week’s pay. According to the department, that has already led to a drop in absences. About 8.6 percent of T.S.A. officers called out of work on Monday, down from a high of 12.4 percent on Friday.
It is unclear if T.S.A. officers will continue to be paid on a regular schedule. Mr. Trump’s memo ordered the department to provide them back pay, but did not specify whether they would be paid in another two weeks if the shutdown persisted.
A spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget said last week that the Trump administration would pay T.S.A. officers from funds approved as part of the president’s tax package that Congress passed last year, which included billions in immigration enforcement.
Which workers are not receiving pay?
Many employees at the Department of Homeland Security have not been paid in over a month. Although some employees have been furloughed, most have been deemed “essential,” meaning they are required to work during a shutdown.
Much of the debate about funding has been related to immigration enforcement, but the department is vast and includes more than a dozen agencies working on a range of issues, including disaster relief and counterterrorism efforts. Thousands of workers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which leads the federal response to natural disasters, are going without pay.
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Most of the 2,300 employees at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which helps protect the country’s election system, power grids and water utilities, have been furloughed. About 40 percent of employees are working without pay, Nick Andersen, the agency’s acting director, told lawmakers last week.
Although many ICE and C.B.P. employees are receiving pay, there are still civilian workers at the two agencies who are working without pay. That includes mission support specialists, clerks and budget analysts, according to Heidi Tien, the president of NTEU Chapter 155, a union that represents C.B.P. employees in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
“With every passing day, their morale is decreasing,” Ms. Tien said.
Nearly 75 percent of civilian specialists at the Coast Guard have also been furloughed, Admiral Thomas Allan, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, told lawmakers last week.
While federal workers are legally required to receive back pay at the end of a shutdown, it can still be difficult for them to fully recover, particularly if they incur financial penalties for not being able to pay bills on time.
When will the shutdown end?
It is unclear when the partial shutdown will end. Lawmakers have deadlocked on an agreement to fully fund the department, and Congress is in the midst of what is expected to be a two-week recess, reducing the likelihood of an imminent deal.
The impasse stems from a bitter partisan dispute over Mr. Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. Democrats have refused to fund the department without imposing new restrictions on immigration officers, such as barring them from wearing masks during enforcement operations and requiring them to obtain judicial warrants to enter private homes. Republicans have dismissed those demands, saying they would impede law enforcement.
A Senate-passed measure to fund most of the department — except ICE and Border Patrol — was swiftly rejected by House Republican leaders, who refused to take it up last Friday.
Madeleine Ngo covers immigration and economic policy for The Times.
The post Who Is Getting Paid During the Department of Homeland Security Shutdown? appeared first on New York Times.
