U.S. Defense Department Ramps Up Pressure on Civilian Staff to Volunteer for DHS Immigration Enforcement

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is increasing pressure on its civilian employees to volunteer to support the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) aggressive immigration crackdown.

In a February 19 memo sent to all civilian staff across the DOD, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote that he expects “every supervisor to encourage their civilian employees to volunteer. Leadership must continue to promote this detail program and educate their civilian employees on its importance.” Titled “Department of War Guidance to Encourage Support to the Department of Homeland Security Southern Border and Internal Immigration Enforcement Missions,” the memo was distributed to thousands of DOD civilian employees. It was first reported by GovExec, and WIRED has also independently reviewed a copy of the document.

The new directive follows a June 2025 memo in which Hegseth first authorized civilian DOD employees to be temporarily detailed to DHS for these missions. But an Army civilian employee, who spoke to WIRED on condition of anonymity over fear of workplace retaliation, says there is “definitely more pressure” now, “at least on the supervisory chain.”

Neither DOD nor DHS responded to a request for comment on this story.

“I received the obligatory announcement email with the first memo when it came out, and no one has talked about it at all, so much so that I had forgotten about it entirely,” the Army civilian employee said. “I don’t know anyone who has taken the job.” This account conflicts with an August 2025 DOD statement, which claims that “nearly 500 DoD civilians have signed up to participate and bring their skill sets to the border security and immigration enforcement mission at the participating DHS agencies.”

“While details and other short-term professional development opportunities are common for Army civilians, I have never heard of supervisors being REQUIRED to approve such details,” they added.

The employee also noted that as part of the Trump administration’s push to cut government staffing under the banner of “efficiency,” Hegseth has actively worked to shrink the DOD’s civilian workforce. “I have taken up the duties of three departed colleagues on top of the job I was hired for as a result,” they said. This chronic understaffing makes it nearly impossible for the department to spare additional staff, or for workers to step away from their existing core projects. The request for DOD staff to volunteer for another federal agency’s mission is also “very not common,” per the employee: the DOD is already stretched thin, as Hegseth and top DOD leadership are currently directing U.S. military involvement in the ongoing conflict with Iran.

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DOD employees who want to volunteer for a detail to DHS must submit applications through USAJobs. According to the official job posting, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)—a component of DHS—will lead application review. Volunteers will not only be deployed to the southern border, but also assigned to “several ICE and CBP facilities throughout the interior of the United States.”

While some volunteer roles focus on routine administrative work like data entry, others place staff directly in the middle of active immigration enforcement operations. These include assisting ICE and CBP to “develop concepts of operation and campaign plans to execute internal arrests and raids as well as patrols along the Southwest Border”; supporting the agencies to “manage the physical flow of detained illegal aliens from arrest to deportation, as well as manage associated data”; and leading “logistical planning to move law enforcement personnel, operational capabilities, and support equipment across the United States.”

The new memo is just the latest in a series of agency-wide changes across the federal government designed to advance President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a new rule would bar households with undocumented immigrant members from accessing certain forms of HUD assistance. At the General Services Administration, staff have already been asked to help ICE secure new operational facilities across the country.