Pending an unexpected last minute deal, it appears that the federal government will shut down at midnight on Wednesday. Some federal agencies, as a result, are prepared to furlough their workers or scale back operations during an indefinite hiatus. But at least one area will remain largely unaffected: immigration enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
According to the DHS contingency plan released on Saturday, 95 percent of the agency's employees—nearly 258,000 workers, which is 12,000 more people than the DHS employed in total ahead of the 2018 shutdown—are expected to remain on board in the event of a federal government shutdown. Of this total, 169,887 will be retained for actions "necessary to protect life and property," including immigration enforcement. More than 93 percent of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees—over 63,000 and nearly 20,000 personnel, respectively—are expected to remain on the agency's payroll through the shutdown.
