Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warns of TSA exodus as DHS shutdown enters critical week

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday that the TSA staffing crunch will worsen as long as Congress doesn’t fund the Department of Homeland Security.

He warned that the situation could fester if Transportation Security Administration agents miss their next scheduled paycheck on Friday.

“If this Homeland Security funding isn’t resolved, I think you’re going to see more TSA agents — as we come to Thursday, Friday, Saturday of next week — they’re going to quit or they’re not going to show up,” Mr. Duffy said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Mr. Duffy said President Trump’s plan to have U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers begin helping TSA agents at airports starting Monday would be “helpful.”

“TSA agents are law enforcement. They know how to pat people down. They know how to run the X-ray machines, because they are, again, under Homeland Security with TSA,” he said. “So if we can bring in other assets and tools to assist TSA to get rid of these lines, yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.”

Senate Democrats and Republicans are in a standoff over DHA funding, as Democrats demand reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Nearly 400 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began Feb. 14, according to DHS. This is the third shutdown in less than six months that has forced TSA officers, who screen airport passengers and luggage, to work without pay.

Mr. Duffy pointed to pay as the driving force. Many TSA agents have starting salaries of $50,000 a year — a stretch in high-cost cities like New York, Los Angeles and Miami. Without paychecks, agents will make financial decisions that are right for their families, he said.

Mr. Trump announced Saturday on Truth Social plans to deploy ICE agents to airports to help manage security lines.

“If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before,” Mr. Trump posted.

The impact of the impasse over DHS funding has been on display at airports across the country. Families are waiting two to three hours in security lines, with the pain compounded by spring break travel, Mr. Duffy said.

Making matters worse, the unpredictability of staffing levels means travelers often don’t know until the day of their flights how early they need to arrive. Mr. Duffy appealed directly to agents, urging them to show up and promising they will eventually be made whole.

“They’re going to get paid,” he said. “They’re going to get paid for all the time that was missed. The problem is they’re living in the today, not the tomorrow.”

Mr. Duffy blamed Democrats for prolonging the standoff, accusing them of using long airport lines as political leverage and pushing to defund ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

Negotiations are ongoing, he said, with the administration already offering concessions, including body cameras for ICE agents. The remaining sticking point, he said, is a Democratic demand that ICE agents remove their face masks — something he said would expose agents to harassment.

“The last thing you want as you travel is to deal with political fights at the airport,” Mr. Duffy said. “Let that stay in Congress.”