The largest union representing Transportation Security Administration personnel balked at the Trump administration’s plans to send upwards of 400 employees to the U.S.-Mexico border to help with border operations and warned the move may “undermine aviation security” as airports head into the busiest time of the year with fewer security screeners.
Hydrick Thomas, president of the American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council, said the Department of Homeland Security and White House are pulling security forces from airports at the most inopportune time, days ahead of Memorial Day, which is the start of the summer travel season.
“The timing of this deployment could not be worse, as we are preparing for yet another busy summer travel season,” Thomas said in a statement.
Major U.S. airlines announced last fall they had seen a record-breaking level of travel over the summer. As a result of the spike in travelers, TSA personnel screened higher-than-normal numbers of passengers. TSA employees processed 253 million passengers and crew from Memorial Day to Labor Day, a 6% jump from last summer.
The TSA said that nine of the top 10 busiest weeks in its 15-year history occurred last summer.
A TSA representative who spoke with the Washington Examiner Wednesday afternoon said they are bracing for another big summer season on top of the border deployment request.
“We’re generally breaking records in some shape or form,” the official said in a phone call. “Since the recession ended, we’ve been having some sort of a record every summer.”
The agency’s 44,000 employees are still reeling from a loss of personnel after an unspecified number quit earlier this year when they were forced to work six weeks without pay due to a lapse in funding.
TSA confirmed to the Washington Examiner Wednesday morning that approximately 1% of its employees were being moved from their posts and relocated to the southern border as part of a temporary deployment.
“TSA, like all DHS components, is supporting the DHS effort to address the humanitarian and security crisis at the southwest border. TSA is in the process of soliciting volunteers to support this effort while minimizing operational impact,” a representative wrote in an email.
The move entails sending air marshals, law enforcement officers, and members of special operations teams to the border to help with the more than 90,000 people who illegally crossed into the U.S. from Mexico in April.
“TSA’s primary concern should be aviation and transportation security. The agency’s plan to pull away parts of a complex, integrated transportation security system for other purposes means fewer resources will be available for aviation security,” said Thomas. “On behalf of the 44,000 Transportation Security Officers AFGE represents, I urge TSA to reconsider its decision to strip away these important security roles from our airports. TSA officers are already severely understaffed. Removing our aviation security counterparts from airports and placing them at the border could undermine our nation’s aviation security.”
[Read more: TSA says it stopped more than 4,239 people from boarding planes while carrying guns last year]
