Biden Administration Makes 11th-Hour Moves To Sabotage Trump Department Of Homeland Security

The Biden administration made multiple last-minute moves that could make the Department of Homeland Security more expensive to operate, and cause the funds allocated to the department to secure the border to be less effective.

On January 17, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote to all employees that he was giving them three days of additional vacation time to be used in 2025, in memory of him.

“It has been the honor of my life to support you and to work alongside you. In recognition of your extraordinary talent, dedication, and sacrifice, I am proud — this one last time — to grant all personnel 24 hours of administrative leave, to be used this calendar year,” he wrote in a memo to staff obtained by The Daily Wire. “Please take care of one another.”

The head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, meanwhile, sent employees a message saying that two career employees will lead the agency until a Trump appointee is confirmed. She signed the message “Ur M. Jaddou (she/her) Director.”

DHS employees were also given an extra day off for Christmas Eve and for former President Jimmy Carter’s death. Because simply not having law enforcement operate is not an option, this often means that the agency must pay for expensive and unbudgeted overtime just to have the coverage they were expected to have.

The change that could have significant impacts on the agency’s budget had to do with allowing employees to attain significant pay raises through tenure, rather than merit. The agency has historically had one Immigration Service Officer job, called ISO-1, that handled simpler cases and was lower-paid, starting at the GS-5 pay rank and allowing employees to climb to a GS-9. A second group of employees, ISO-2s, had to pass a test to get the job, handled complex cases, and were paid between GS-9 and GS-12.

In recent weeks, USCIS said it would combine them into one job, meaning all of its lower-paid agents could climb all the way to GS-12 pay simply by staying in their jobs. That gives the agency less of an ability to control its budget, and also means that the agents handling complex immigration cases could be less qualified.

The move could be an attempt to sandbag or budget-bust Trump’s DHS, or it could simply be a giveaway to public-sector unions, a primary Democrat constituency.

It means “everyone would eventually be GS-12… as long as you do your job at the basic level you will get promoted without any competition or proof of your ability to do or know your job,” a USCIS employee told The Daily Wire. “Someone straight from college with a degree in lesbian dance theory will get a GS-12 spot as long as they do the minimum.” 

A message dated January 6 and obtained by The Daily Wire said that “We have decided to combine these two positions into a single career ladder, eliminating the overlap of the GS-9. This new structure will feature one ISO position with a career progression spanning the 5/7/9/11/12 grade levels. However, there are several regulatory steps that we need to adhere to in order to make this transition. The new career ladder was tailored to meet growing operational effectiveness. This development also reflects our commitment to valuing and supporting the professional growth for ISOs.”

On January 17, the last weekday of the Biden administration, the merged jobs appeared on USAJobs.gov, the government’s hiring site. 

Related: House Republicans Target Federal Unions After 11th-Hour Deals Tie Trump’s Hands On Remote Work