Abby McIlraith sat before her computer on Wednesday waiting for the email that would tell her the national covenant had been restored. It was a message instructing her to return to work at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after months of administrative leave. While her reinstatement marks a victory for truth, it comes as 240,000 of her colleagues across the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) face a cold reality. On May 1st, the federal government defaulted on their paychecks.

This is a betrayal of the men and women who stand at our gates. Secretary Markwayne Mullin has stated his agency has run out of funds to pay thousands of employees. The Senate recently advanced a $70 billion plan for border enforcement, but this funding prioritizes militarized walls over the people who make our nation function. We are witnessing a hollowing out of the civil service in favor of a political spectacle.

"There’s your tax dollars at work," a senior FEMA official told CNN. The words carry a bitter weight for families who now look at empty bank accounts. In the halls of our airports, 830 TSA agents have already handed in their badges. They cannot feed their children on promises of future reconciliation bills. A state that refuses to pay its servants has lost its moral claim to their loyalty.

Order is the moat that protects our civilization, but that moat is dug by human hands. When we starve the workers who guard our transit and respond to our disasters, we invite chaos into the domestic hearth. The Senate leadership has chosen to fund the machinery of enforcement while abandoning the souls who operate it. We must ask what kind of security is bought at the price of a father's dignity and a mother's peace of mind.

According to USA Today, Congress may vote today to avoid further chaos. However, for the thousands who missed their May 1st mortgage payments, the damage is already done. These families are the backbone of our community. They deserve better than to be used as leverage in a budget-room brawl.