The Department of Homeland Security is calling back thousands of furloughed employees and telling them to return to work and a paid status at their next scheduled shift, a move that begins to cut through nearly eight weeks of uncertainty over whether they would be paid during the shutdown.
In a message sent late Friday afternoon, the department told staff that all DHS employees, excepted and non-excepted/non-exempt, are to be returned to a work and paid status, effective on their next regularly scheduled duty day. Employees who cannot report must request leave and get approval from supervisors, and those who do not follow that process may face administrative or disciplinary action.
The shift matters because DHS has been operating under a shutdown since Feb. 14, leaving thousands of civilian employees furloughed while many others were required to keep working. A department spokesperson said tens of thousands of employees had been furloughed and were unable to do work critical to protecting the homeland, and said the department was using available funding to recall the entire workforce. The spokesperson also said paychecks are now being processed and employees may already be seeing the money deposited.
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The recall follows President Donald Trump’s earlier this month directive for 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 earlier this week, DHS told employees covered under that order that they would receive backpay through April 4, and added that any additional compensation owed would be paid once DHS funding is restored by Congress.
That caveat is the part that keeps the shutdown pay uncertainty alive. DHS said that if the department exhausts its currently available funds before a fiscal 2026 appropriation is enacted, employees will get a new notification of their work status. Congress has not yet agreed to the funding measure, House Republicans remain split on a Senate-passed plan to fund most of DHS, and Trump is pressing Republicans to split off immigration enforcement and border security money in a party-line vote. Democrats, meanwhile, say they will not back the immigration enforcement pieces unless changes are made to CBP and ICE enforcement policies and procedures.
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For now, the department says the immediate problem is being handled. DHS said it is using available funds to pay employees, and the spokesperson said the easiest way to keep the men and women of DHS paid going forward is for Democrats to reopen DHS. The broader fight, though, is not settled, and the question now is whether the recalled workers stay on the job with pay through the next funding deadline or are told to stand down again if Congress does not move first.
