The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is reassigning hundreds of employees across several of its agencies to aid in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Staffers who refuse to comply with the new direction will face dismissal, according to reports.
Bloomberg reported that staff members from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), many of whom focus on offering cybersecurity guidance to U.S. government agencies and critical infrastructure, are being reassigned to other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. These moves include placements in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Both Bloomberg and Nextgov noted that the majority of the affected CISA employees are from the Capacity Building unit, which enhances the cybersecurity posture of federal agencies, and the Stakeholder Engagement Division, which manages CISA’s international partnerships. Some staff have also been transferred to the Federal Protective Service, which works alongside ICE and CBP in deportation operations.
Since taking office, Donald Trump has emphasized immigration enforcement as a priority, and lawmakers approved $150 billion in taxpayer funding in July to support ICE’s deportation efforts. A substantial portion of this funding is expected to be allocated to technology tools, including spyware, data brokers, and location data, to track millions of individuals nationwide.
These staffing changes come at a time when the U.S. government is facing an uptick in cyberattacks targeting both private industries and federal agencies. For example, a cybercrime group targeting Salesforce databases has stolen large volumes of data, while Russian hackers breached sealed documents from the U.S. federal court system. Additionally, a SharePoint vulnerability earlier this year allowed hackers to infiltrate multiple federal departments, including one responsible for securing the U.S. government’s nuclear stockpile.
In a statement sent to TechCrunch, Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, confirmed that the department “routinely realigns personnel to meet mission priorities” and ensures continuity across its core operations. While she did not dispute the reports of reassignments, she emphasized that the department remains capable of handling national security threats.
However, when asked whether the CISA roles would be backfilled or left vacant, McLaughlin did not provide a direct answer, stating, “Any notion that DHS is unprepared to handle threats to our nation because of these realignments is ludicrous.”
