Federal immigration officers were at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday, March 23, 2026, to assist with airport security as the partial closure continues. The airport advised travelers to prepare for a wait of at least four hours to pass through security on Monday. (Photo: Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
Transportation Security Administration officials are struggling to afford basic needs, approaching the second loss of full pay since the funding shutdown began last month, union leaders said at a virtual news conference Tuesday.
Officials with the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 44,000 TSA officers nationwide, called on Congress to immediately find a solution to the partial government shutdown that began on February 14. More than 400 TSA employees have resigned since the shutdown began, and thousands are missing shifts.
Mac Johnson, who represents TSA workers in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, said his members are increasingly telling him about their difficulties getting groceries, housing costs, car insurance and other necessities.
Some people started selling plasma to make ends meet, he said.
“It’s not like these workers and their families are hungry,” Johnson said. “They are going hungry, literally starving, because they don’t have the means… to feed their families… That’s why we not only strongly encourage, but demand that Congress and this administration sit down like adults and solve this matter so that these workers are not between a rock and a hard place.”
The dispute over the suppression of immigration
After two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January — and other cluttered episodes sparked by President Donald Trump’s aggressive push for deportations — congressional Democrats have demanded changes to immigration enforcement policies as a condition of funding the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the TSA and conducts most immigration enforcement.
Senators have signaled in recent days that they may be nearing an agreement on funding the nonimmigrant portion of the TSA, but union officials have said their members must be paid immediately.
“We have been hearing about optimism and progress for weeks,” said AFGE President Everett Kelly. “Our members cannot eat optimism or pay their rent with progress.”
With TSA staffing low at airports and officers off duty, security lines at some airports stretch for hours.
Even after the shutdown ends, workers will receive between two weeks and a month of back pay, according to Aaron Barker, president of the union that operates Georgia’s airports, and Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of AFGE’s nationwide TSA workforce division.
This could potentially mean it will take weeks to return to normal staffing levels as officers continue to leave shifts to look for contract work or other quick pay, they say.
TSA officers have not received a partial and one full paycheck since mid-February. AFGE officials said the next payment is expected to be made this weekend.
The blame game
Asked about the situation for TSA workers, DHS provided a statement from spokeswoman Lauren Bis that closely resembles comments she made a day earlier blaming Democrats for the plant closures.
“American travelers are having to wait hours at airports across the country. More than 450 TSA officers have walked off the job and thousands have called off work because they can’t afford gas, child care, food or rent,” Bis said.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer sharply criticized Trump for demanding that a national voter ID bill be included in a deal to reopen DHS.
“We wasted a day of negotiations because of Donald Trump’s tantrum,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a speech. “It may not seem like much to the president, but it’s another day of TSA employees needlessly waiting for screening, another day of travelers standing for hours at security screening.”
ICE “on the way”
The administration dispatched agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another DHS agency, to several airports to assist TSA workers. ICE is fully funded despite the DHS closure because last year’s Republican Spending and Tax Cuts Act provided money for immigration enforcement.
White House border czar Tom Homan said ICE agents would support with tasks such as exit security rather than conduct activities that require extensive training, freeing TSA officers to operate X-ray machines and other, more specialized tasks.
AFGE officials, however, said ICE officers were not helping.
“Everything ICE does is disruptive,” said Hydrick Thomas, chairman of the AFGE board that covers TSA employees. “We’re still trying to figure out why they’re there. There’s no way ICE will help us make passengers feel safe.”
