As the government shutdown grinds on, the Trump administration is reportedly using layoffs and reassignments to reduce the size of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Experts told Cybersecurity Dive that the terminations and mandatory relocations — the most recent phase of the White House’s reduction of CISA — could further weaken the already diminished cyber-defense agency.
According to a court filing, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has laid off 176 federal employees since the government shut down on Oct. 1. A DHS spokesperson said that the majority of those layoffs were CISA employees due to the agency’s previous focus on election misinformation.
“During the last administration, CISA was focused on censorship, branding and electioneering,” the spokesperson told Cybersecurity Dive. “This is part of getting CISA back on mission.”
Two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said that the layoffs affected employees in the following CISA divisions:
- The Stakeholder Engagement Division, which manages the cyber agency’s relationships with state, local, international and critical infrastructure partners.
- The Integrated Operations Division, which provides services to partner organizations and runs the agency’s around-the-clock watch center.
- The Infrastructure Security Division’s Chemical Security unit, which helps safeguard chemical facilities.
CISA’s Cybersecurity Division was not hit with layoffs, according to the two officials.
In addition to the firings, the Trump administration is reportedly pursuing another strategy to shrink the workforce size at CISA.
Citing six current U.S. officials and one former official, Cybersecurity Dive reported that DHS has issued relocation orders known as Management Directed Reassignments (MDR) to CISA employees over the past several months. The outlet granted the officials anonymity to speak freely.
CISA employees have been reassigned to roles with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Federal Protective Service, with many of these new positions located across the country from the employee’s present location.
Refusing an MDR can be considered grounds for termination.
“They’re MDRing someone from Georgia up to New York and MDRing someone from New York over to Texas,” one U.S. official said.
A second official told the outlet that two CISA employees were reassigned to ICE jobs in Washington, D.C., even though “one of them lives nowhere near D.C.”
“I know these people very well,” the second official said. “They are doing sensitive and important work.”
The source said that, in other cases, CISA employees in D.C. are being told they must move to Massachusetts, Texas and other states. The first official said that one employee who was told to report to a new job in Alaska quit instead of relocating.
“In all cases, it seems like it’s in an effort to get them to quit instead of firing them,” the second official told Cybersecurity Dive.
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