ICE, Border Patrol Continue Work Under Shutdown

91 percent of homeland security department still on the job

Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem poses with ICE agents

The federal “shutdown,” instituted at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning has left the national security state largely immune from furloughs and work stoppages.

Though many government websites and social media feeds have gone dark — some even blaring that the Democrats are to blame — in the dark world of rounding up immigrants, terrorizing cities, and building up a new surveillance and arrest system to pursue “domestic terrorists,” little is changing.

ICE’s official website

“It doesn’t really affect us very much,” one senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told me this morning.

In fact, the authoritative 77-page DHS document detailing procedures for a government shutdown shows that out of 271, 927 civil service employees onboard within the department, 259,482 (or 91 percent) are “exempt” or “excepted.”

For ICE, 63,243 of its 67,762 employees are completely exempt. For Customs and Border Protection, 63,243 of its 67,729 employees will continue to work. And for TSA, 61,197 of its 64,130 continue their annoyances unaffected.

Table from DHS’ “Procedures Relating to a Lapse in Appropriations”

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem postured about this reality in a statement today in predictably partisan terms:

“Our @DHSgov law enforcement officers will continue to work throughout the Democrats’ Shutdown to make sure our homeland is safe and secure,” Noem said on X. “More than 200,000 of these patriots will go without pay.”

Her sob story about the poor, forgotten federal agents is wrong on a number of counts. First, 44,466 DHS employees are “exempt” altogether and will keep getting paid. Of the remaining 213,277, yes, they will work without pay until funding continues, but no one in DHS seems to think they will go without pay. They expect either an appropriations bill (or a continuing resolution) to continue funding, I’m told.

Second, according to homeland security’s own numbers, the department has fewer than 97,000 sworn officers, and even there, many are bureaucrats and technicians. The other DHS components — administration, research and development, training, counter-WMD, emergency management, FEMA, TSA, and most in the Coast Guard are not “law enforcement officers.”

“Rumors that a U.S. government shutdown will allow illegal immigrants to enter the United States are FALSE,” ICE says in numerous statements posted to its social media accounts. (The funding lapse-imposed social media blackout was mysteriously lifted here.) “During a government shutdown, the U.S. will defend its borders.”

ICE’s official Instagram account

The Pentagon and the intelligence agencies have similar exemptions and will continue their work, furloughing mostly low-level civilian employees, according to the (very) limited information they have released. For other federal entities that deal with feeding, housing, and caring for the public, the shutdown could be devastating if it goes on. It already is.

In contrast, and as always, the national security state gets what it wants.

The house always wins.

— Edited by William M. Arkin