TSA employees have been working without pay during a partial shutdown of DHS over demands to reform immigration enforcement.
More than 400 Transportation Security Administration workers have quit since a partial government shutdown that began on Feb. 14 left them working without pay, the Department of Homeland Security said.
Funding was shut off to DHS over demands by Democrats for reforms at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection following alleged abuses and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.
There has also been a national callout rate of 10% at TSA on more than half the days of the last week, Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, said Saturday in response to questions.
My wife is a wheelchair user. For one flight, we tried to arrive as quick as we could. The TSA agents processed us as fast as they could. Once done, a TSA agent grabbed my backpack and ran towards our plane so that I could push my wife’s wheelchair. Another agent had already gone to ask the flight crew to wait for us. We could have easily missed our flight. I wouldn’t call myself a TSA supporter but I know that they are good TSA agents out there.