WASHINGTON DC — President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Friday declaring that all Department of Homeland Security employees will receive pay and benefits during the agency's partial shutdown. The order directed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to use funds with a reasonable and logical nexus to DHS functions to pay each employee at the department, according to the memo.

The partial shutdown, now in its 49th day, is the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. DHS has been partially shut down since mid-February due to a dispute over immigration enforcement policy. The vast majority of DHS employees have reported to work during the shutdown, but many thousands have gone without pay. The memo estimated that over 35,000 employees, including civilian Coast Guard employees and staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, had not been paid.

The executive order, titled "Liberating the Department of Homeland Security From the Democrat-Caused Shutdown," stated: "This callous treatment of DHS employees must end in order to ensure that America is not susceptible to security threats and maintains readiness to respond to emergencies." The order did not specify which funding sources DHS would tap or the legal justification for reprogramming the funds.

Trump first announced his intention to pay DHS workers on Thursday. He posted on social media: "Their families have suffered far too long. Help is on the way for our Brave and Patriotic Public Servants who have continued to work hard, and do their part to protect and defend our Country."

The executive action followed earlier steps to address pay disruptions across DHS. Last week, Trump directed Transportation Security Administration officers to be paid through reallocated funds after absences by TSA agents led to long waits at some airport security lines. TSA security bottlenecks began clearing as agents started receiving back pay. Secret Service agents and active-duty Coast Guard personnel had received paychecks through reallocated funds, while law enforcement officers at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection had been paid through funding from last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. About 10,000 FEMA workers were being paid through the non-lapsing Disaster Relief Fund, though at least 4,000 FEMA employees remained furloughed or working without pay.

Congressional Democrats have refused to back a proposed funding bill that would allocate money to ICE without imposing new guardrails on the agency's immigration operations. House Republicans rejected a compromise last week that would have funded DHS while excluding funds for ICE and other offices focused on immigration enforcement. The Senate passed a bipartisan bill to fund most of DHS while excluding funding for ICE and parts of CBP. The House convened on Thursday and took no action to pass DHS funding legislation. The House has not yet acted on the Senate bill. Republicans plan to fund the remainder of DHS, including ICE and CBP, through the Senate's reconciliation process, which permits passage with a simple majority without Democratic support.