Transportation security worker absences hit a five-week high this weekend during the ongoing government shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security said, with ICE agents set to fill gaps at major U.S. airports.
At airports in Houston, New York and Atlanta, more than one-third of Transportation Security Administration staff were calling in sick or otherwise absent, DHS said, as the shutdown left tens of thousands working without pay while congressional Democrats and Republicans argue over the DHS budget.
To help fill the staffing gaps, hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will deploy to airports starting on Monday, government officials have said.
DHS said on Sunday it would not publicly share details about the ICE deployment, in order to preserve operational security, but sources briefed on the matter said the current plan calls for deploying ICE agents to 14 locations, although that figure may change.
For now, ICE personnel will not be deployed in areas behind airport security checkpoints because they lack the specific clearance needed, the sources said.
Federal officials indicated that the ICE deployment would support TSA in crowd control and managing security lines in domestic terminals, and is “not intended to conduct immigration enforcement activities,” Dickens said.
That contradicts a social media post by Trump on Saturday that ICE agents’ activities would include “the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country,” particularly Somalis, a group that his administration has accused, without evidence, of widespread fraud and corruption.
Workers Without Pay For Weeks
Democrats have held up funding for DHS while demanding a change in rules governing its immigration operations, which have killed U.S. citizens and sparked public outrage.
Overall, more than 9% of TSA employees have been absent from work over the past seven days, leading to lengthy lines for passengers trying to get to their gates, according to DHS.
Hundreds of TSA agents forced to work without pay have also simply resigned, according to their labor union and TSA.
Border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday that sending out immigration agents to bolster short-staffed TSA teams will speed up airport lines, but the union for TSA workers said that does not solve what they see as the underlying problem of pay.
“When we deploy tomorrow, we’ll have a well thought-out plan to execute,” Homan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
“ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!” Trump wrote in a Sunday morning social media post.
Tsa Workers’ Union Objects To Replacement Plan
The labor union representing TSA workers criticized Trump’s decision, saying their members spend months in training learning to detect explosives and weapons.
Unlike TSA employees, ICE agents have continued to get paid by the government through a separate funding provision while lawmakers debate whether ICE funding should be tied to new rules and procedures.
Democrats have said new rules are needed after masked ICE agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in the streets of Minneapolis earlier this year. The two had come out to protest or observe Trump’s unprecedented deportation surge in Minnesota.
(With inputs from Reuters)
