What? They are not paying people protecting the border? What exactly is essential besides protecting the border?
That is true.
They are not paid. . .just like those federal non-essential bureaucrats, but those bureaucrats get to sit at home and wait for back-pay (never earning that back-pay).
Essential people are working and being told they will be paid at some point.
Non-essential people were sent home- presumably without pay, though they may be paid later if they are salaried employees- that depends on what is put in the CR/budget whenever one is agreed on.