The federal agency that oversees security at airports and transportation hubs may deploy additional employees to the southern border in the midst of its busiest time of year to assist other Homeland Security agencies should Congress not pass a supplemental funding bill in the coming weeks.
“We would expect that to continue and maybe elevate if they do not receive additional funds, given the shortfalls,” Patricia Cogswell, acting deputy administrator for the Transportation Security Administration, told reporters at a roundtable briefing Thursday.
The TSA partnered with Customs and Border Protection earlier this spring to deploy around 400 personnel to the U.S.-Mexico border to help with law enforcement and non-enforcement tasks related to the higher-than-normal numbers of migrant adults and families in federal custody after illegally crossing into the country.
The agency is now at a standstill as it waits to see if Congress will pass a $4.5 billion supplemental bill that would give Customs and Border Protection and Health and Human Services additional money to expand operations and relieve TSA employees who volunteered as part of a “surge force” to the border.
Cogswell said security officers are among the “several hundred” individuals deployed to the border but would not break down the larger figure. Those deployed are sent to various locations on the border and serve 45 days at a time.
The continued loss of personnel comes as the agency’s leader said Thursday it is focused on staying within current wait times as a record number of passengers pass through checkpoints at more than 440 airports this summer.
The TSA’s busiest days of the year, when it screens the most passengers at airport security checkpoints, typically come between Memorial Day and Labor Day, when families travel.
The agency expects to inspect 263 million travelers in that time frame, up 10 million from last summer. Cogswell said it has hired additional employees since the government shutdown earlier this year but did not share how many employees it lost during or after the shutdown.
Cogswell said despite the loss of some officers and non-checkpoint employees, typical passengers can still expect to wait 30 minutes and those enrolled in PreCheck will not spend more than 10 minutes in security before boarding their plane.
A TSA official told the Washington Examiner in May the agency expects 1% of the estimated 44,000 employees to head down to the border. All will work with Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations, that is, officers who staff ports of entry. TSA workers will not help U.S. Border Patrol agents, who work on the land between border crossings.
The briefing comes weeks after TSA administrator David Pekoske was tapped to serve as acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Pekoske’s boss, Kevin McAleenan, most recently served as the head of Customs and Border Protection.
