Border Patrol Federal Agents and police keep watch as people protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Broadview facility in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska

By Jana Winter and Ted Hesson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is telling some federal law enforcement personnel, including Border Patrol agents and customs officers, that they will be paid during the government shutdown, according to internal correspondence seen by Reuters.

The decision to provide paychecks to roughly 50,000 U.S. Customs and Border Protection workers follows announcements that the Trump administration will also pay military troops and FBI agents during the shutdown, which started on October 1. Hundreds of thousands of other federal employees, meanwhile, are not receiving payment.

It was not clear what funding CBP would use to provide their pay. According to a detailed plan published shortly before the shutdown took effect, roughly 97% of the agency's 67,000 workers are funded through annual appropriations, which ran out on September 30 due to a dispute between Republicans and Democrats in Congress over healthcare subsidies.

CBP, its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The decision will provide relief to Border Patrol agents who have been drafted into Trump's law enforcement surge in Democratic-leaning cities like Chicago, as well as customs officers tasked with fighting fentanyl smuggling, another administration priority.

It was not immediately clear whether other federal law enforcement agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also will pay their personnel.

CBP officials told union representatives on Wednesday afternoon that some of the department's employees would be reclassified as "exempt," which would allow them to receive paychecks. The agency's published shutdown plan specifies that they would not be paid, even though they would still be required to work.

“The following positions have been declared exempt: Air and Marine Agents, Border Patrol Agents and CBP Officers, as determined by management,” CBP officials told union representatives in an email reviewed by Reuters.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents customs officers, also told its members they would start getting paid.

Separately, the Transportation Security Administration, which is also overseen by the DHS, informed its federal air marshals that they will start getting paid for working the shutdown, according to internal agency emails reviewed by Reuters.

TSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has sought to punish his Democratic opponents during the shutdown by freezing billions of dollars in funding and laying off thousands of workers at agencies like the Education Department that have been traditionally championed by Democratic lawmakers. A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the administration from carrying out those layoffs for the time being.

The shutdown has disrupted a wide range of government services, from consumer protection to flood insurance, and suspended pay for hundreds of thousands of federal workers. A 2019 law requires workers to be paid retroactively when the shutdown ends, though Trump's administration has questioned that interpretation.

(Reporting by Jana Winter and Ted Hesson; editing by Andy Sullivan and Nia Williams)