For nearly one month, about 50,000 workers from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) went without pay as their parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), had been under a partial funding freeze. This recent funding freeze comes after TSA agents were not paid for more than one month in the fall during an earlier federal government shutdown.
Although it’s being reported that TSA agents did finally get paid today, it’s clear that their needs or our safety weren’t a real concern for either Democratic or Republican politicians. The Democrats said they wanted a DHS shutdown to pressure the administration into making some mild reforms to ICE. But in true dictatorial fashion, Trump instead began withholding paychecks from TSA agents while continuing to fund ICE fully. The Democratic charade of standing up to Trump went down the tubes, ICE continued its cruel operations, and TSA workers are continuing to get screwed.
So, TSA workers began understandably calling in sick from work and resigning in large numbers, leading to incredible delays for passengers and more pressure than usual for the TSA workers still on the job. The administration used this as a chance to ram ICE agents into airports, supposedly to help TSA speed things up. Now, rather than having unarmed TSA workers who are intended to help us and keep us safe as we move through airports, we are faced with the very armed force that is killing people in the streets and letting people die in their expanding system of concentration camps. This move might have helped alleviate the insane wait times at some airports, but it was surely intended to round up more victims and to remind the rest of us that we are all potential targets for their aggression.
We need safe, well managed airports. We need workers there who are intended to keep us safe and help us as we travel. We need safety workers equipped with communications that keep them safe as they do their jobs. We need thousands more air traffic controllers to keep the runways and skies safe for us.
Instead, we get thugs and intimidation.
We see the political system’s priorities. It’s time to fight for ours.
