I completely disagree. They're part of DHS and there is no rational reason to start picking and choosing politically sympathetic groups and paying them, but not paying the other 800,000 affected. I'm sure lots of Republicans are getting hell for making the Coast Guard (!!!) work without pay and this relieves a pressure point for them, which only harms the chances for a deal.
As I said on another post this thread, if it was up to me there would be two options - if DHS is shut down, shut it down. Send everyone home, park the ships, send the Coast Guard home with no pay and no work, dismantle the border crossings (put up barriers so NO traffic gets through or let it all through), send Secret Service home and leave POTUS unguarded, shutter the IRS so the money quits flowing entirely, and padlock all the federal courts and halt FBI investigations and prosecutions, ground all flights except life threatening emergency flights - all of them, etc.
OR, if we're going to start making exceptions to departments that are unfunded and "closed" but only "closed" so that the public doesn't notice, then pay every person required to work his or her full salary, on time.
As it is, this is political theater, a game, with workers the only ones paying a price. It's bull****, and if we start paying the Coast Guard, then the border control, then FBI, then the courts.....and last on the list is IRS because who gives a damn about IRS, **** them, amirite? And their families - who gives a **** about them? Let's keep it shut down forever!! LOLOLOLOL!! So how much pain the workers suffer is how sympathetic they are to the public. It's no way to run a country - based on popularity polls.