Roughly 3,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents did not show up for work on Saturday alone amid the partial government shutdown.
The partial shutdown has reached day 38, and thousands of TSA agents have since called out — 3,000 alone on Saturday, according to reports.
Sunday also had an excessive number of callouts:
To help alleviate the staffing issues, the Trump administration has sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to several U.S. airports to assist with operations. Trump previewed the move over the weekend, and border czar Tom Homan confirmed the plan on Sunday.
“I’m currently working on the plan now, execution. I’m working with the director of ICE and the administrator of TSA, the acting administrator. So we’ll put together a plan today and will execute tomorrow,” Homan said during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union.
Various videos across social media show agents assisting in overcrowded airports. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens (D) confirmed that the agents are not enforcing immigration law but providing critical support to TSA, such as assisting with crowd control and conducting ID checks.
“We have been informed that federal personnel from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE-ERO) will be deployed to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport beginning tomorrow morning,” Dickens said in a statement released Sunday.
“According to federal officials, these personnel will be assigned to support operational needs directed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), including line management and crowd control within the domestic terminals,” Dickens said in a statement.
“Federal officials have indicated that this deployment is not intended to conduct immigration enforcement activities,” the statement continued, noting that “federal personnel will report directly to TSA for the duration of this assignment.”
Airports receiving the additional support include:
- Chicago-O’Hare International Airport
- Cleveland Hopkins International Airport
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
- Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport
- Houston’s Bush intercontinental
- John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York)
- LaGuardia Airport (New York)
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
- Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
- Newark Liberty International Airport
- Philadelphia International Airport
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
- Pittsburgh International Airport
- Southwest Florida International Airport (Fort Myers, Florida)
This move, however, has been criticized by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union. The union’s national president Everett Kelley said in a statement that TSA workers should be paid and not replaced with “untrained armed agents”:
ICE agents are not trained or certified in aviation security. TSA officers spend months learning to detect explosives, weapons, and threats specifically designed to evade detection at checkpoints — skills that require specialized instruction, hands-on practice, and ongoing recertification. You cannot improvise that. Putting untrained personnel at security checkpoints does not fill a gap. It creates one.
Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe. They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.
Congress has the power to fund TSA today. It’s time for them to stop playing politics and do their jobs.
He added, “TSA officers deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, 400 TSA workers have quit since the shutdown began on February 14.
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