After President Donald Trump threatened to deploy federal immigration agents to airports amid a Department of Homeland Security funding fight in Congress, union members in the Midwest are expressing concern about agents’ lack of training and their own lack of pay.
Trump made clear on Sunday, a day after saying he would use immigration officers for airport security starting Monday unless Democrats agreed on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, that he was going ahead with the plan to assist the Transportation Security Administration.
Hundreds of thousands of homeland security workers, including from the TSA, U.S. Secret Service and Coast Guard, have worked without pay since Congress failed to renew DHS funding last month. Democrats are demanding major changes in the conduct of federal immigration agents.
White House border czar Tom Homan said in Sunday news show interviews that the increased role of U.S. Customs and Immigrations Enforcement at airports — specific duties and numbers — was subject to discussions with the leadership of TSA and ICE “to find out where we can fit in.” Immigration officers, as an example, could cover exits currently monitored by TSA agents, freeing them to work screening lines, or having ICE agents check identification before people enter screenings areas.
Homan promised “a plan by the end of today, where we’re sending — what airports we’re starting with and where we’re sending them.”
The City of Chicago and its Department of Aviation didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE both didn’t respond to requests for comment or clarity on when travelers could expect to see the change enacted.
Everett Kelley, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA agents and other federal workers in Illinois and Wisconsin, said with the agents’ deployment also came security concerns for passengers.
“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,” Kelley said in a statement Sunday. “They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”
Darrell English, president of AFGE Local 777 — the chapter that represents TSA officers from Illinois and Wisconsin, among others — said the danger also extends to the agents’ lack of training regarding aviation security. He said adding ICE agents to the mix could also slow the screening process down for travelers, given they lack the seven months of training TSA agents go through before screening solo, and that with experience comes efficiency.
“It’s always concerning when you hear language like that in terms of changing the security that’s being implemented,” English said. “It leaves a hole. … TSA understands the threat to aviation and the flying public, and it also takes years of understanding that to be efficient and secure.”
Responding to similar criticisms, Homan said “certainly, a highly trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit. … Stuff like that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines.”
“ICE agents are assigned at many airports across the country already,” Homan said “[But] I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine, because we’re not trained in that.”
But the vast majority of TSA employees are considered essential and have continued to work during the funding lapse, and doing so without pay. Call-out rates have started to increase at some airports, and DHS said at least 376 have quit since the partial shutdown began Feb. 14.
The Senate rejected a motion by Democrats Saturday to take up legislation to reopen TSA and pay workers who are now going without paychecks. Republicans argue that they need to fund all parts of DHS, not just certain ones.
If the funding fight doesn’t wrap up by Friday, it will make for the second missed paycheck for impacted federal workers. English said he was aware of several officers within Local 777 who had left during the prolonged shutdown last year as well as during the most recent, though he didn’t have a specific count.
“If they can’t take care of their family because of the financial issues with TSA, they’re going to look for different avenues,” English said, urging others to reach out to their federal elected officials about it. “These are years of training you’re losing when these veterans leave.”
It comes just about a year after the Trump administration attempted to throw out the union’s contract — which covers 47,000 workers — for the first time, attempting again in December.
It stemmed from a September memo from former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — issued months after a federal judge blocked her earlier directive — that says TSA screeners “have a primary function of national security” and therefore should not engage in collective bargaining or be represented by a union.
That fight remains ongoing as the union awaits a court date to be set on the second challenge to their contract, English said.
“This is the worst I’ve seen the conditions with TSA,” English said. “Not only have they not been paid and their collective bargaining rights challenged, but now they have to worry about other individuals that may be coming in to assist or replace them. … If they get paid, they can do their job and there won’t be a need for outside assistance.”
Contributing: AP
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