President Donald Trump said Saturday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would go to airports to help with security. On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security would not confirm whether that includes the San Diego International Airport.
“For operational security reasons, we are not going to confirm the locations of our officers,” said DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis.
Transportation Security Administration workers at the San Diego airport have been working without pay since the partial government shutdown began on Feb. 14, according to Robert Mack, a lead transportation security officer and the chief steward for the TSA workers’ union.
“Stress is at an all time high right now,” he said. “Morale is at an all-time low.”
This shutdown began just three months after last year’s 43-day shutdown ended.
“You can’t recover from that quickly,” Mack said. “Things are getting real tight.”
More than 400 TSA workers have quit and thousands have called out from work during the shutdown, according to DHS.
On Monday morning, San Diego airport officials updated travel guidance online to suggest that travelers arrive two and a half hours before their flights.
Matthew Raska and Jessica Thomas took that advice. They flew in from Atlanta on Friday.
“It was way worse,” Thomas said, looking at the Terminal two security line on Monday. “We were in line for two and a half hours in Atlanta.”
The Associated Press reported seeing ICE agents at the Atlanta airport on Monday. Thomas said TSA workers are caught in the middle of the federal budget impasse.
“All workers are important, especially federal employees, and one should not be preferred over the other,” she said. “If ICE agents are making money working airport security, then TSA agents should be making money working airport security.”
Democrats have refused to fund DHS without changes to certain immigration enforcement policies. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are still being paid because the One Big Beautiful Bill allocated billions of dollars to the agency last year.
The San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council has set up a hardship fund for local TSA workers.
Mack asked airport travelers to be patient as workers do their best. He said the job already takes a lot of concentration.
“Compounding that with lack of pay, staffing shortages, you're asking them to do a monumental task,” he said.
