Federal workers protested the government shutdown, now on its 20th day, outside the AFL-CIO union headquarters in Washington DC on Thursday.

Demonstrations were held nationwide as protesters, who are furloughed or working without pay, pleaded to go back to work.

Congress and the president have been locked in a stalemate over his demand for $5.7 billion to build a border wall that he'd said Mexico would pay for. Discussions have yielded little result.

Over 800,000 workers have been affected by the partial government shutdown, which will become the longest in the country's history by Saturday.