More than 400 Transportation Security Administration employees have quit their jobs since the partial government shutdown began on February 14, leaving them to work without pay, the Department of Homeland Security said.
Funding was cut from DHS due to Democrats’ demands for reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection following allegations of torture and the fatal shooting of two US citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.
There was also a nationwide 10% recall rate at the TSA, Lauren Bis, acting secretary of public affairs at DHS, said Saturday in response to questions.
TSA, which is under DHS, has about 65,000 employees. Of that number, 50,000 are front-line police officers responsible for security at the country’s airports.
Of the TSA officers who quit during the shutdown, about half have three years of experience and a third have more than five years, the agency said.
Some TSA employees have expressed fear of unpaid bills and worse, not being paid. Anthony Riley, a 58-year-old married father of three who has been unemployed for weeks, told NBC News earlier this month that he is facing eviction and homelessness.
There have been extra wait times – and frustration – at airports as a result of the closures.
The highest nationwide recall rate during the shutdown came Friday, at 10.22 percent, a DHS spokeswoman said.
John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City had a negative rate of 29.5% on Friday, while Houston Intercontinental Airport had a rate of 36.6% on the same day, the spokesman said.
Houston Hobby Airport had a call rate of 51.5% on Friday, according to DHS.
In the US Senate on Saturday, a Democratic bill to fund only TSA workers but not all of DHS failed to get the 60 votes needed to advance. The 41-49 vote was along party lines.
On Friday, Senate Democrats voted down Republican efforts to pass a bill to fully fund DHS.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats from New York, have called for changes to ICE.
In February they outlined the changes they want to see, including an end to what they call arbitrary arrests, a ban on ICE officers wearing masks, and an end to what they say is racial profiling by the agency.
The administration blamed Democrats for the shutdown, calling it the “Democratic DHS shutdown.”
President Donald Trump in a post on Truth Social threatened to send ICE to airports.
Funding for ICE, which is part of DHS, was not cut during the shutdown. That agency received $75 billion in additional funding from the “big, good bill,” the president’s major legislative package that was passed and signed into law last year.
Joe Smollen, who was flying from Newark Liberty International Airport to San Diego on Saturday, said he went to the airport a few hours in advance if possible. He said he hoped Congress would reach an agreement.
“I think it’s not fair that the citizens have to put up with it,” said Smollen.
“And these poor people who work here, they are very diligent in what they do, we need them,” said Smollen. “And it’s not fair that they can be elected like that.”
