President of the United States Donald Trump announced this Thursday that he will sign an executive order to guarantee immediate payment to airport security agents who have worked without salary due to the partial closure of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with the aim of reducing delays and operational problems at the country's airports. Trump stated in a message on his Truth Social account that he will instruct the new Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to execute the payment «immediately» to address the «emergency situation» and «stop the chaos at the airports». The president once again attributed the crisis to Democrats' refusal to fully fund the department without including immigration policies to closely supervise immigration agents, following controversial raids on immigrants that left two U.S. citizens dead in January. The budget stalemate affecting Homeland Security began on February 14 and has left discretionary agencies like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) without funds, causing thousands of agents to work without pay and complaints of absenteeism and extremely long wait times at airport checkpoints nationwide. According to the latest Department of Homeland Security data, 40.3% of the TSA workforce at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston (Texas) were absent from their jobs this week. They are followed by Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, where 37.4% were absent; George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston (Texas), which recorded a 36.1% absentee rate; and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana, which had 34.9% less staff. To try to reduce these wait times, the Trump administration mobilized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in more than 10 airports across the country, although authorities have not specified the total number of personnel. White House border czar Tom Homan explained that ICE will help TSA «do its job in areas that do not require specialized knowledge,» such as monitoring an exit, managing lines, or controlling crowds. Several pro-migrant organizations have criticized this decision, especially after Trump suggested that federal agents may also carry out arrests and detentions, although this is not the goal of the deployment. Photo EFE. The article «Trump orders payment to security agents amid national emergency at airports» was first published on La Verdad Panamá.
