More than 400 Transportation Security Administration employees have quit since being forced to work without pay during the partial government shutdown that began on February 14, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Funding for DHS was cut off, citing Democratic demands for reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection following the alleged abuse and shooting deaths of two Americans by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Loren Biss, DHS’ acting assistant secretary for public affairs, said in response to questions Saturday that TSA’s national turnout rate was 10% on more than half of the days last week.
TSA, which falls under DHS, has approximately 65,000 employees. Of these, 50,000 are front-line workers responsible for security at the country’s airports.
Of the TSA employees who left during the shutdown, nearly half had three or more years of experience, and one-third had five or more years of experience, according to the agency.
Some TSA employees have expressed concerns about unpaid bills or worse, unpaid bills. Anthony Riley, a 58-year-old married father of three who has been working without pay for weeks, told NBC News earlier this month that he faces possible eviction and the fear of becoming homeless.
The closure has increased wait times and frustration at airports.
The highest national call rate during the shutdown was Friday at 10.22%, according to a DHS spokesperson.
New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport had a call rate of 29.5% on Friday, and Houston Intercontinental Airport had a call rate of 36.6% on the same day, a spokesperson said.
The call rate at Houston Hobby Airport on Friday was 51.5%, according to DHS.
In the U.S. Senate on Saturday, a Democratic bill that would have funded only TSA employees and not the rest of DHS did not receive the 60 votes needed to pass. The 41-49 vote was along party lines.
On Friday, Senate Democrats rejected a Republican effort to pass legislation that would fully fund DHS.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats from New York, have called for reform of ICE.
In February, they outlined reforms they wanted, including an end to what they call indiscriminate arrests, a ban on ICE officers wearing masks and an end to what they call racial profiling by the agency.
The administration called this the “Democrats’ DHS Shutdown” and blamed the Democratic Party for the shutdown.
President Donald Trump threatened to send ICE to the airport in a post on Truth Social.
Funding for ICE, which is part of DHS, has not been cut off during the shutdown. The agency received $75 billion in additional funding from the president’s major legislative package, The Big Beautiful Bill, passed and signed into law last year.
Joe Smolen, who was flying from Newark Liberty International Airport to San Diego on Saturday, said he got to the airport a few hours early just to be safe. He said he hopes Congress can reach an agreement.
“I think it’s unfair that people have to put up with this,” Smolen said.
“And the poor people who work here are very, very passionate about their jobs, and we need them,” Smolen said. “And it’s unfair for them to be singled out like that.”
