US airports ask for donations for unpaid TSA staff amid partial government shutdown

A rising number of US airports are asking for donations to support employees affected by the partial government shutdown with airport security officials missing their first full paychecks Friday.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees have been working in airports around the US without pay since a shutdown began in February after Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a funding agreement. Democrats have since refused to support a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA’s parent agency, without first receiving guaranteed immigration enforcement reforms.

Amid the shutdown, TSA workers have been faced with continuing to work at airports without pay or find other ways to make income.

Some airports in response have started food pantries while others have requested community members donate small grocery and gasoline gift cards.

Nonetheless, with some TSA workers not reporting for unpaid duty, lines at security checkpoints have intermittently grown long. For instance, at Miami international airport on Thursday, lines sporadically doubled the normal clearance time for security checkpoints.

Video of a security line stretching out to the parking lot at New Orleans’s international airport went viral several days earlier.

The Guardian reached out to four other separate international airports: Denver, Orlando, Las Vegas and Cleveland. According to the officials who spoke with the Guardian, they have seen relatively normal lines and security wait times, even during a busy travel day like Friday and amid the busy spring break travel season.

Asked at Miami’s airport how many of his co-workers had called out, one agent replied:“Not enough. Nothing happens until the public feels some pain.”

Praharsha Pinninti, a recent college graduate who was at Miami’s airport heading home to Raleigh, North Carolina, said she found the pay issue “insane”.

“I think that’s extremely unfair,” Pinninti added, describing the legislative standoff as “a test of time, and it’s a test of patience and it’s a test of our integrity as an issue”.

Airports in Denver, Seattle, Las Vegas, Reno, Cleveland, Orlando, New York and New Jersey, have all been accepting donations.

The public information officer for the Denver airport, Keylen Villagrana, told the Guardian the facility had received “dozens” of gift cards from the public.

Any donations for TSA workers are subject to the federal government’s regulations. For example, employees are not allowed to accept cash nor any cash-equivalent cards, such as a Visa gift card. The regulations also say that all gift cards have to be valued at $20 or less.

Meanwhile, staff at the Las Vegas international airport recently launched a food and essentials pantry to support TSA employees during the shutdown. The airport’s spokesperson, Amanda Mazzagatti, told the Guardian the facility had received baby formula, toiletries, household essentials and non-perishable food items.

The Las Vegas food pantry was first opened in 2019 during a lengthy federal government shutdown during Donald Trump’s first presidency. Then in the fall, months into Trump’s second presidency and during the longest shutdown in US history, the Las Vegas airport food pantry was reopened.

“As this shutdown stretches on, these workers – some of whom are still recovering from the last shutdown – are going to really be in need of these supplies,” Mazzagatti said.

At Cleveland’s Hopkins international airport, employees initially began gathering resources themselves for TSA employees ensnared by the fall shutdown. But then the public sent inquiries on how to help, leading to a food pantry, Michele Dynia, the airport’s public information officer said.

The Cleveland airport opened the pantry again earlier in March and began asking for donations of food and gift cards with small amounts.

“The airport is like a family, and this is our way to help out our family members here at the airport,” Dynia told the Guardian.

Since earlier this year, Democrats have been fighting further funding for DHS agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the two agencies tasked with carrying out the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

Agents with ICE and CBP under the command of the Trump administration have been met with significant criticism over their aggressive arrest and detention tactics.

Amid the shutdown, Senate Democrats have pushed for a series of smaller bills that would fund specific agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, like the TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and others not related to immigration enforcement. But Senate Republicans have opposed those requests.

George Chidi contributed reporting