A Department of Homeland Security employee recently took out an $11,000 loan to fix his roof. But ever since Congress failed to reach a deal to fund the agency in February, he’s used that borrowed money to cover his family’s basic living expenses ― groceries, gas, mortgage payment ― while he continues to work without receiving a paycheck.
“We’ll have to pay back that line of credit, then figure out what we’ll do about our roof,” said the employee’s wife, a schoolteacher who asked that they remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “My husband has always been able to support our family, but that is no longer the case.”
A lot of Americans might think the partial government shutdown is over. After all, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to pay Transportation Security Administration officers most of their backpay, and the unusually long airport security lines ― the most visible symptom of the political impasse ― have generally disappeared for now.
But Congress still hasn’t passed a bill to fund the agency’s operations, leaving tens of thousands of workers clocking in as “excepted” personnel but not getting paid. The bandaid for TSA has actually left these people in a worse spot, since it undercut any political urgency to reach a deal on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers have even left town for a two-week recess, ensuring the shutdown will carry at least into mid-April.
“The concern is that now that the public-facing problem has been resolved, this could just stretch out indefinitely, because we just don’t have the same exposure.”
– DHS employee on TSA officers getting backpay
A DHS spokesperson would not say exactly how many agency employees are working without pay or furloughed. They put the number in the “tens of thousands” at sub-agencies like U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Various DHS sub-agencies did not provide figures, either.
The spokesperson, DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis, blamed Democrats for the standoff.
“This is now the longest shutdown in U.S. history,” Bis said in an email. “Democrats need to stop holding these hard-working DHS employees hostage and putting politics above national security.”
Many of these workers have little or nothing to do with the shutdown’s central issue: Trump’s unpopular immigration crackdown, in which agents killed two Minneapolis protestors. Democrats have demanded some basic guardrails, including stronger use-of-force protocols, and Republicans have let funding lapse rather than acquiesce. But DHS has been paying immigration and border agents through a separate pot of money from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, leaving them financially unscathed by the shutdown.
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Meanwhile, a lot of workers in DHS administrative and support roles are accepting canned goods and gas gift cards now that they’ve missed 3 1/2 paychecks.
“Congress is wanting to punish the [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents, the [Border Patrol] agents – those are the ones on the front lines,” said the wife with the leaky roof. “The ones who have nothing to do with what happened, they’re the ones being punished.”
Samuel Corum via Getty Images
There’s at least one way the shutdown could undermine accountability at least in the short term. A DHS source told HuffPost there are employees working without pay in CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility ― that’s the office tasked with screening would-be officers, investigating misconduct allegations and rooting out corruption in the agency. Absenteeism tends to rise during shutdowns as employees call out rather than work without pay.
The source said a lot of employees have been pulling money out of their thrift savings plans, which are meant for retirement. Such hardship withdrawals typically increase during shutdowns, though they can trigger early-distribution penalties.
The National Treasury Employees Union said it represents around 4,000 workers at CBP who are not being paid, but work “right alongside” employees who are still receiving paychecks. Doreen Greenwald, the union’s president, said all workers deserve “emergency funding” like TSA agents received to get through the shutdown.
“Federal employees are living out of their cars, making painful decisions about how to feed their family, pay for prescriptions or fuel their car,” Greenwald said through a spokesperson. “[They] should not have to rely on public charity to survive.”
A DHS employee working without pay told HuffPost that many workers in her situation feel “forgotten.” So much focus was on TSA agents that even friends who follow the news are surprised to learn employees are still missing paychecks.
“The concern is that now that the public-facing problem has been resolved, this could just stretch out indefinitely, because we just don’t have the same exposure,” said the worker, who asked that she not be named for fear of retaliation.
“I’m happy that somebody is getting paid,” she added of the TSA agents. “My thing is I want everybody to get paid.”
“My husband has always been able to support our family, but that is no longer the case.”
– The wife of a DHS employee who’s working without pay
The worker said she has burned through much of her savings during the shutdown and has started selling clothes on Poshmark. The next step would be to borrow money from family. After that, she would be seeking bank loans. She said a co-worker recently took out a loan at 10% interest to cover caregiving costs for their elderly parents. Some have had to ask their supervisors for letters explaining the shutdown to provide to lenders in a request for leniency, she said.
Late last week the Senate passed a bill to fund all of DHS except for ICE and Border Patrol, which would have punted debate on the accountability measures for the immigration crackdown. But House conservatives blasted the bill, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) did not put it up for a floor vote, ensuring the shutdown would continue.
Public pressure to end the shutdown could return if TSA callouts climb again and airport bottlenecks resume. Trump’s executive order used One Big Beautiful Bill funding for security screeners’ backpay, but it said nothing of paying agents on a regular schedule in the coming weeks.
For now, the wife of the DHS employee is braced for them to miss a fourth paycheck. Their teenage daughter has a birthday this week but told her parents she doesn’t expect any presents this year.
“No child should feel that way,” she said.