|
A memo that President Trump signed on Friday ordering the Department of Homeland Security to pay T.S.A. officers did not specify whether they would be paid on a regular schedule.
|
|
With Congress in recess, much of the Homeland Security Department remains without money because of the impasse on Capitol Hill, even as airport security workers are to begin getting paid.
|
|
Airport security officials have been sharing passenger data with immigration agents, but the program received little attention until videos captured a woman and her daughter being detained at San Francisco's airport.
|
|
Transportation Security Agency officers have called out of work or quit after weeks of not getting paid during a partial government shutdown. ICE agents have begun to fill their roles.
|
|
The partial government shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security has caused major staffing shortages within the Transportation Security Administration, an agency under DHS that handles airport security procedures created in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. TSA officers have not been paid for over a month, leading to hundreds of resignations and leaves of absence. As airports are hit with significant delays, Cameron Cochems, the vice president of a union representing thousands of fellow TSA workers, urges travelers to use their time waiting to call their elected representatives "to fund the TSA so we can get our paychecks and we can get back to work."
To fill staffing shortages, DHS has deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to U.S. airports. This comes as ICE is under fire for a hiring surge with minimal vetting and training for new officers. "It really feels like they're a Band-Aid over a gaping wound. Our officers, they're not getting paid, and having people that come in that are getting paid just feels like an insult," says Cochems, who adds that the ultimate goal of the Republican Party is to eliminate union protections and privatize the TSA.
|
RELATED ARTICLES | | |
|
