Pete Hegseth Is Pushing Defense Employees to Volunteer With DHS

The Department of Defense is putting much unit connected employees to unpaid to enactment the Department of Homeland Security’s migration crackdown.

In a February 19 memo sent to civilians crossed the DoD, caput of defence Pete Hegseth wrote that helium expects “every supervisor to promote their civilian employees to volunteer. Leadership indispensable proceed to beforehand this item programme and amended their civilian employees connected its importance.” The memo, which was titled “Department of War Guidance to Encourage Support to the Department of Homeland Security Southern Border and Internal Immigration Enforcement Missions,” was sent to thousands of civilian DoD employees. The memo was archetypal reported by GovExec and was besides viewed by WIRED.

The instructions travel a June 2025 memo successful which Hegseth authorized civilian employees to beryllium elaborate to DHS. But an Army civilian worker who spoke to WIRED connected the information of anonymity for fearfulness of retaliation says that determination is “definitely much pressure” now, “at slightest connected the supervisory chain.”

The DoD and DHS did not respond to a petition for comment.

“I received the obligatory announcement email with the archetypal memo erstwhile it came retired and nary 1 has talked astir it astatine all, truthful overmuch truthful that I had forgotten astir it entirely,” says the Army civilian employee. “I don’t cognize anyone who has taken the job.” In a statement from August 2025, the DoD claims that “nearly 500 DoD civilians person signed up to enactment and bring their accomplishment sets to the borderline information and migration enforcement ngo astatine the participating DHS agencies.”

“While details and different abbreviated word nonrecreational improvement opportunities are communal for Army Civilians, I person ne'er heard of supervisors being REQUIRED to o.k. specified details,” they say.

The worker noted that, arsenic portion of the Trump administration’s efforts to chopped backmost connected authorities jobs successful the sanction of “efficiency,” Hegseth has sought to cut the department’s workforce. “I person taken up the duties of 3 departed colleagues connected apical of the occupation I was hired for arsenic a result,” they say. This means it would beryllium hard for the section to suffer immoderate much unit oregon for workers to measurement distant from existing projects. The worker described this benignant of petition to unpaid for different national bureau arsenic “very not common.” It’s not similar the Defense Department has immoderate spare clip astatine the moment, either: Hegseth and DoD enactment are presently engaged successful directing the US’s relation successful struggle with Iran.

DoD employees who privation to unpaid to beryllium elaborate to DHS request to apply done USAJobs. According to the occupation posting, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is portion of DHS, volition beryllium reviewing applications. Volunteers volition not lone beryllium sent to the confederate border, but to “several ICE and CBP facilities passim the interior of the United States.”

While immoderate unpaid roles look to beryllium mundane tasks similar “data entry,” others look to beryllium successful the heavy of migration enforcement operations. These see assisting ICE and CBP successful “developing concepts of cognition and run plans to execute interior arrests and raids arsenic good arsenic patrols on the Southwest Border;” assisting ICE and CBP successful “managing the carnal travel of detained amerciable aliens from apprehension to deportation, arsenic good arsenic negociate associated data;” and “managing the logistical readying to determination instrumentality enforcement personnel, operational capabilities, and enactment instrumentality crossed the United States.”

The memo is conscionable the latest successful a bid of changes crossed the national government meant to enforce president Donald Trump’s migration agenda. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a caller regularisation would barroom families with migrant members from receiving definite forms of enactment from the agency, and astatine the General Services Administration, unit person been asked to assistance ICE successful procuring caller carnal spaces crossed the country.