Trump orders airport security paid as travellers face hours-long queues

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Ana Faguyand

Sareen Habeshian

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Watch: BBC journalist caught in travel chaos at Houston Airport

President Donald Trump said he will sign an order to pay airport security workers, as air travellers across the US face hours-long queues during a partial government shutdown.

Trump said he was instructing the Department of Homeland Security “to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation”.

“I am using my authorities under the law to protect our great country, as I always will do,” he wrote in a social media post on Thursday, without providing details.

Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents have quit since the shutdown began in February. A congressional deadlock over the department’s funding has forced the officers to work without pay.

Here’s what we know about the current situation.

Houston airport wait times reach over four hours amid US travel chaos

Bloomberg via Getty Images

Why aren’t TSA agents being paid?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the TSA, has been unfunded since February after Congress failed to reach a budget agreement.

This triggered a partial government shutdown.

TSA agents are considered essential workers and are required to work without immediate pay during a federal shutdown.

Their salaries are dependent on congressional appropriations, which are tied to a funding agreement in the DHS budget.

The Trump administration has blamed Democrats, who have declined to pass funding without concessions.

Democrats want reforms to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency as part of any funding deal.

With fewer TSA officers at airport security checkpoints, wait times have surged nationwide.

Compounding the strain, more than 450 TSA workers have quit since the partial shutdown began, a senior TSA official said.

The TSA has around 50,000 agents who screen passengers.

ICE agents deploy to major US airports as security queues stretch for hours

How long have the waits been?

Travellers are experiencing the longest wait times ever in the TSA’s 24-year history, the agency’s acting chief, Ha Nguyen McNeill, told a congressional oversight committee on Wednesday.

Some of the worst delays were reported in Houston, where security wait times have stretched beyond four hours this week. At some major airports, queues have stretched as far as parking areas.

Earlier this week, nearly 40% of the security staff at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston did not show up for work - the highest such rate in the country.

On Thursday evening, a BBC correspondent returning from honeymoon via Houston airport reported that after waiting about two hours in winding lines across one floor, frazzled travellers went up an escalator thinking they had reached the end - only to find another long queue stretching towards security.

The airport is currently operating just one-third to 50% of its TSA checkpoints, said Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System.

Major international airports like those in New York, New Jersey and Illinois are also facing significant disruptions.

US airline CEOs urge Congress to end shutdown and pay airport workers

When could TSA agents get paid again?

TSA agents will get paid once the government reopens and funding to the DHS is restored.

Agents missed their first full paycheque two weeks ago, but they must keep working because they are considered essential workers for public safety, even though there is no money to pay them.

Lawmakers in Washington have not been able to agree to a funding path forward in the weeks since they partially shut the government down.

‘Helpful’ and ‘scary’: Travellers react to ICE agents at airports

Can Trump order the TSA to be paid?

Trump said in a social media post on Thursday that he would sign an order instructing newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation”.

The president added: “It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it!”

While Trump’s order could provide temporary relief, it is unclear what authority the White House could invoke for such a move.

“It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it!” Trump said in his post on Truth Social.

But such payments could face a legal challenge.

“I haven’t seen any plausible assertion of a legal basis for paying TSA agents,” Josh Chafetz, a professor of law and politics at Georgetown University told the BBC.

“It seems to me pretty clearly a violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits spending money that has not been appropriated by Congress.”

Invoking the National Emergencies Act could free up funds for temporary TSA pay, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Before Trump announced his new order, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told the BBC: "It is true that the White House is having discussions about a number of ideas to blunt the impact of the Democrat shutdown crisis, but no preparations or plans are currently underway.

“The best and easiest way to pay TSA Agents is to fund DHS.”

Why have immigration agents been sent to airports?

The Trump administration said earlier this week that hundreds of ICE agents had been sent to 14 airports in cities including New York, Atlanta and Houston to help fill the void left by absent TSA agents.

While TSA agents are not currently getting paid, ICE agents are because they are funded through a different appropriations package that Congress passed last year under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”.

Trump on Wednesday touted the success of the decisions, saying ICE is doing “an unbelievable job” at airports.

The president also indicated he is considering sending the National Guard to airports “if we need to” in order to assist TSA and ICE.

Additional reporting by Christal Hayes

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