Roughly 90% of the more than 260,000 employees at the Department of Homeland Security will continue working through the looming DHS shutdown, and many of them will do so without pay.
But the impact of the shutdown, which now appears certain to happen, varies widely depending on the DHS component and position in question. That’s especially true after Congress gave some DHS components, like Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, tens of billions of dollars in additional funding as part of last year’s tax and reconciliation law.
And during last year’s 43-day shutdown, the Trump administration shifted funding around to continue paying military service members and law enforcement officers.
On the eve of a DHS-specific shutdown for what will likely last at least one week, here’s what we know about how the shutdown could impact different DHS components:
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ICE, CBP
Republicans in Congress argue ICE and CBP operations would continue largely unabated during the shutdown thanks to funding from the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Democrats argue strong immigration enforcement reforms are needed before passing further funding for ICE or CBP.
Typically, most ICE and CBP staff would work unpaid during a government shutdown. The funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was not specifically marked for salaries or operations.
But during last fall’s shutdown, the Trump administration used funding from the bill anyway to keep paying 70,000 federal law enforcement officers, including ICE and CBP agents.
Meanwhile, many civilian employees at ICE and CBP continued working unpaid through the 43 days.
“President Trump and I will always stand by law enforcement, and we are keeping our promise to always support them by making sure they are paid during the Democrats’ shutdown,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last fall.
DHS did not respond to questions about whether it would use similar budget gymnastics to continue paying ICE and CBP officers during another shutdown.
TSA
About 95% of the 61,000 employees at the Transportation Security Administration are deemed “essential” during a government shutdown. That means TSA airport screeners continue staffing security checkpoints without getting paid.
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As last fall’s 43-day shutdown dragged on, more TSA officers began calling out sick or otherwise not showing up to work. The pressure created by callouts at the TSA and the Federal Aviation Administration ultimately helped end the budget impasse.
But acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeil said many employees are still recovering from last year’s shutdown.
“We heard reports of officers sleeping in their cars at airports to save money on gas, selling their blood and plasma and taking on second jobs to make ends meet,” McNeil said at a House hearing this week. “Some are just recovering from the financial impact of the 43-day shutdown. Many are still reeling from it. We cannot put them through another such experience.”
McNeill said TSA also experienced a 25% increase in attrition in October and November of last year compared to the same period in 2024.
“Which is quite concerning if we’re looking at another potential shutdown, especially as we’re entering spring break travel season and to prepare ourselves for the events coming at us this summer,” she added.
Asked at the House hearing whether the administration could continue paying TSA airport screeners using reconciliation funding, McNeil said, “I do not believe so.”
“I think that the best way to ensure that our frontline workers get paid is through the passage of a DHS budget,” she added.
Meanwhile, TSA’s federal air marshals were among the group of law enforcement officers that received special pay, like ICE and CBP officers, during last fall’s shutdown.
FEMA
FEMA has roughly 22,000 staff onboard after the agency lost more than 2,000 employees to the Trump administration’s workforce transition program in 2025. DHS’s shutdown contingency plan – which hasn’t been updated to reflect the latest staff cuts – shows that about 84% of FEMA staff are considered excepted or exempt during a shutdown, while the rest are furloughed.
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But many FEMA staff could continue getting paid under a shorter-term shutdown. That’s because frontline FEMA staff known as Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, or CORE staff, are Stafford Act employees and paid via the Disaster Relief Fund. FEMA reservists are also paid through the fund when they are working temporary deployments.
FEMA had 8,800 CORE staff and 7,800 reservists as of fiscal 2022.
The DRF still has funding left over from prior Congressional appropriations, according to Greg Phillips, FEMA’s associate administrator for the Office of Response and Recovery.
“FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund has sufficient balances to continue emergency response activities for the foreseeable future, and lifesaving and life sustaining activities are an excepted activity under DHS’s lapse plan,” Phillips told House lawmakers this week. “That said, if a catastrophic disaster occurred, the Disaster Relief Fund would be seriously strained.”
The upshot is that a longer term shutdown combined with a catastrophic disaster could drain the DRF and make it harder for FEMA to respond to contingencies and continue paying Stafford Act employees.
And FEMA staff that aren’t furloughed and are funded through annual appropriations will have to work without pay during the duration of any shutdown.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been shedding hundreds of FEMA CORE staff in recent weeks, with little public justification. Unions and nonprofits recently sued the Trump administration to stop the CORE cuts.
Secret Service
At the Secret Service, 94% of roughly 8,200 employees will continue working through a shutdown.
They normally work without being paid. But like other DHS law enforcement positions, Secret Service agents were paid via the Trump administration’s budget maneuvers during last fall’s shutdown.
Meanwhile, much of the agency’s civilian workforce went without pay.
While a minimal amount of staff will be furloughed, Deputy Director Matthew Quinn told House lawmakers that the shutdown impacts morale and makes the agency’s job harder.
Quinn also said it delays the Secret Service’s reform efforts, which includes a major recruitment push.
“The impacts may not be seen tomorrow, but I assure you, we will feel the ripple effects for some time,” he said. “Delayed contracts, diminished hiring, and halted new programs will be the result.”
Coast Guard
Most of the Coast Guard’s 56,000 active duty, reserve and civilian personnel will continue working through the shutdown.
Vice Adm. Thomas Allan said a lapse that lasts more than a few days will halt pay for those personnel.
“Shutdowns cripple morale,” Allan, the Coast Guard’s acting vice commandant, said during this week’s House Appropriations Committee hearing. “The Gunner’s Mate manning a weapon in the Strait of Hormuz should not have to worry if their family will be able to pay rent while being shadowed by Iranian vessels.”
But as it did with law enforcement and the military, the Trump administration did move funding around to continue paying Coast Guard service members during last fall’s shutdown. DHS used funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to pay Coasties during the shutdown.
CISA
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency plans to designate 888 of its 2,341 employees as excepted during a shutdown. All of those employees would go without pay during a shutdown.
“A shutdown forces many of our frontline security experts and threat hunters to work without pay— even as nation-states and criminal organizations intensify efforts to exploit critical systems that Americans rely on—placing an unprecedented strain on our national defenses,” Acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala told lawmakers this week.
The cyber agency’s core responsibilities include defending federal agency networks and working with critical infrastructure to strengthen their security.
Gottumukkala said that a shutdown would delay the deployment of new cyber services to federal networks and the sharing of guidance with critical infrastructure partners. It would also likely delay CISA’s work to finalize a landmark cyber incident reporting rule.
The shutdown would be another strain on CISA after it lost roughly 1,000 staff members – about one-third of its workforce – under the Trump administration’s workforce reduction programs.
USCIS
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is primarily funded by user fees, rather than congressional appropriations, meaning most staff continue working and getting paid through any shutdown.
But a shutdown does curtail a set of USCIS programs that rely on congressional appropriations, such as the agency’s e-Verify system.
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