TSA’s Time Has Come | The Daily Caller

For all the focus on reforming Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) most in need of defunding is the Transportation Security Agency (TSA).

Founded in the wake of 9/11, the TSA was a response to the hijackers’ use of box cutters to take control of the four airliners that were used to destroy the World Trade Center, damage the Pentagon, and potentially the White House. Prior to 9/11, passenger screening was conducted by private security screeners employed by the airports and airlines and the logic was that a government agency could do a better job.

But the opposite has happened. TSA screeners consistently fail to identify dangerous weapons in tests conducted by government auditors known as red teams that secretly place weapons of many types in luggage and on passengers to determine if TSA will find them — and a 2015 DHS investigation revealed that over 90 percent of the time they don’t.

TSA wants us to look on the bright side, however. In 2024, the agency reported that agents intercepted 6,678 firearms during 7.4 per million screenings. (RELATED: Karoline Leavitt Asked If Deportations Will Decline While ICE Does TSA Work)

Most of the time, the found firearms are due to passenger forgetfulness, but there are no public cases of a potential hijacking having been prevented by TSA screening.

To demonstrate its value, one journalist documented how TSA displayed seized items near inspection points in 2008, but most of what was seized were quirky items or fingernail clippers and cuticle scissors. The display of dangerous items are posted on the TSA website in an annual top ten list — the process of dumping liquids continues.

The agents themselves are a liability. From 2003 to 2012, 381 TSA agents had been terminated for theft. More recently, a theft ring of TSA agents working at Miami airport were arrested.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t real issues with ICE being debated at the moment. This week, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, President Trump’s nominee to head the DHS, vowed during his confirmation hearing that ICE officers would obtain search warrants signed by judges rather than their controversial use of administrative warrants.

Those are real reforms. But no such luck with TSA. The agency’s failures and ineffectiveness are considered an issue of national security, so audits have been classified under the theory that potential terrorists would be emboldened if the truth were told.

Though the nation’s entire transportation system is under TSA’s purview, which also includes ports, surface transportation systems and petroleum and gas pipeline delivery systems, the bulk of the $11.6 billion fiscal-year 2026 TSA budget is spent on airport screening and the Federal Air Marshals.

TSA employs 65,000 people, 50,000 of whom are screeners, a number higher than the total number of US Coast Guard active duty and reservists combined. In comparison, the FBI, whose duty includes preventing domestic terrorism, employs just 13,700 special agents. (RELATED: We Asked America’s Biggest Airlines If They’ll Stop Treating Politicians Like Kings)

A 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) study on strengthening DHS and FBI interagency terrorism stated: “From fiscal years 2013 through 2021, the FBI’s number of open domestic terrorism-related cases grew by 357 percent from 1,981 to 9,049, From calendar year 2010 to 2021, I&A tracked a total of 231 domestic terrorism incidents, with racially- or ethnically-motivated violent extremists committing the most violent incidents during the time period.”

While the report listed six recommendations for executive action to improve DHS and FBI anti-terrorism cooperation, the TSA was not mentioned once. This is because for all its reputation as an agency fighting foreign and domestic terrorism, it’s best known for seizing normal-sized shampoo bottles.

Defund TSA, go back to outsourcing its airport responsibilities and reuse the funds to bolster the agencies actually fighting terrorism.

Steve Smith is a senior fellow in urban studies at the Pacific Research Institute, writing about California’s ongoing crime challenge.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.