The Division of Protection is placing extra stress on workers to volunteer to assist the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration crackdown.
In a February 19 memo despatched to civilians throughout the DOD, secretary of protection Pete Hegseth wrote that he expects “each supervisor to encourage their civilian workers to volunteer. Management should proceed to advertise this element program and educate their civilian workers on its significance.” The memo, which was titled “Division of Battle Steering to Encourage Help to the Division of Homeland Safety Southern Border and Inside Immigration Enforcement Missions,” was despatched to hundreds of civilian DOD workers. The memo was first reported by GovExec and was additionally considered by WIRED.
The directions observe a June 2025 memo through which Hegseth authorized civilian workers to be detailed to DHS. However an Military civilian worker who spoke to WIRED on the situation of anonymity for concern of retaliation says that there’s “positively extra stress” now, “at the least on the supervisory chain.”
The DOD and DHS didn’t reply to a request for remark.
“I acquired the compulsory announcement e mail with the primary memo when it got here out, and nobody has talked about it in any respect, a lot in order that I had forgotten about it completely,” says the Military civilian worker. “I don’t know anybody who has taken the job.” In a statement from August 2025, the DOD claims that “practically 500 DoD civilians have signed as much as take part and produce their ability units to the border safety and immigration enforcement mission on the collaborating DHS companies.”
“Whereas particulars and different short-term skilled improvement alternatives are widespread for Military civilians, I’ve by no means heard of supervisors being REQUIRED to approve such particulars,” they are saying.
The worker famous that, as a part of the Trump administration’s efforts to chop again on authorities jobs within the title of “effectivity,” Hegseth has sought to cut the department’s workforce. “I’ve taken up the duties of three departed colleagues on high of the job I used to be employed for in consequence,” they are saying. This implies it might be troublesome for the division to lose anymore workers or for staff to step away from present initiatives. The worker described this type of request to volunteer for an additional federal company as “very not widespread.” It’s not just like the Protection Division has any spare time in the intervening time, both: Hegseth and DOD management are presently engaged in directing the US’s role in conflict with Iran.
DOD workers who wish to volunteer to be detailed to DHS have to apply through USAJobs. In accordance with the job posting, the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA), which is a part of DHS, will likely be reviewing functions. Volunteers won’t solely be despatched to the southern border, however to “a number of ICE and CBP amenities all through the inside of the USA.”
Whereas some volunteer roles seem like mundane duties like “information entry,” others seem like within the thick of immigration enforcement operations. These embrace aiding ICE and CBP in “creating ideas of operation and marketing campaign plans to execute inside arrests and raids in addition to patrols alongside the Southwest Border”; aiding ICE and CBP in “managing the bodily move of detained unlawful aliens from arrest to deportation, in addition to handle related information”; and “managing the logistical planning to maneuver legislation enforcement personnel, operational capabilities, and assist tools throughout the USA.”
The memo is simply the most recent in a collection of changes across the federal government meant to implement president Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. On the Division of Housing and City Growth, a brand new rule would bar households with immigrant members from receiving sure types of assist from the company, and on the Common Companies Administration, workers have been requested to help ICE in procuring new physical spaces throughout the nation.
