Government personnel at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were instructed to submit selfies as proof of their on-site presence, after a sudden change in policy abolished remote work.

The Homeland Security Department (DHS) and several other federal agencies have begun implementing a policy requiring remote workers to return to their offices. The move comes as part of a memorandum from President Trump to ensure staff report to their offices five days each week.

On Sunday evening, most DHS employees were notified that they must report to their office on Monday. The report date for these reassigned Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) workers will be finalized after the agency finishes implementing its reduction in force plans.

USCIS employees who were not scheduled to work on Monday were assigned two-hour windows to check in to their duty stations throughout the day. Compressed and alternative work schedules were canceled with immediate effect.

The selfie request, which came from a division chief at a senior executive level within DHS, asked employees to send a selfie to their management team on Monday to prove they are in the office. However, there is no publicly available evidence that any division chief of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a selfie requirement to employees.

Remote network access for non-compliant employees will be disabled by Tuesday. Agencies such as the EPA have moved into the final phase of this plan, ordering remote workers to report to an office. For instance, the EPA has issued management directed reassignments to remote workers, instructing them to report to specific agency campuses, such as Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

However, not all employees are mandated to comply. Only employees with specific exceptions (married to active-duty military, remote workers more than 50 miles from a DHS facility, or those with approved reasonable accommodations) are not required to report to the office.

The process appears to be unfolding on an ad hoc basis, with USCIS employees beginning to receive emails notifying them to report on Monday around 9 p.m. on Sunday, while others did not receive them until 4 a.m. on Monday.

This new policy has raised concerns among some employees. One remote worker at the Health and Human Services Department, who is deemed 80% disabled by the Veterans Affairs Department, was directed to report to an office in Denver, which is more than eight hours from his current location. Another DHS employee reported being threatened with disciplinary action, including termination, for failing to comply with the new directive.

If an employee does not accept the directed reassignment at the EPA, they may risk losing their job. Remote workers have been given a deadline to accept these reassignments, or face potential job loss (deadline is May 9).

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center is asking employees without assigned DHS space to report to the closest DHS facility and ask if they have space for them to work until a final agreement between components can be reached.

It is important to note that this is a developing story, and more information will be provided as it becomes available.

Government personnel at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were instructed to submit selfies as proof of their on-site presence, after a sudden change in policy abolished remote work.