Washington DC - The Trump administration has said it will make sure that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents get paid despite the government shutdown.

Emails obtained by Reuters confirm that the Trump administration will continue to pay the tens of thousands of federal agents that are currently carrying out President Donald Trump's brutal anti-immigrant agenda.

A series of emails were sent out to ICE and CBP staff on Wednesday confirming that up to 64,000 personnel will receive their pay packets.

That means ICE and CBP staff join the few federal workers – including military troops and FBI agents – who have received a reprieve from the government shutdown that has raged since October 1.

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It's unclear how ICE and CBP staff will be paid, however, as the vast majority of both agencies' payroll is funded by appropriations which have not passed Congress.

The federal government shut down on October 1 after Democrats and Republicans failed to pass a funding deal.

Trump and MAGA leadership have repeatedly blamed the shutdown on Democrats. They have also refused to confirm whether hundreds of thousands of workers will receive backpay when the government reopens.

Democrats, meanwhile, accuse Republicans of refusing to negotiate on extending expiring health care subsidies, without which millions of Americans could see their insurance premiums rise sharply.

During the shutdown, the White House has also escalated an "aggressive" firing spree in an attempt to take a hatchet to the federal workforce and put pressure on the Democrats.

"I think we'll probably end up being north of 10,000," White House Office of Management and Budget chief Russ Vought said of the firings. "We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy."