DHS Shutdown Drives Record TSA Attrition; ICE Deployed to 13 Major Airports as Workforce Crisis Deepens
The DHS funding shutdown, now in its sixth week, produced record TSA callouts on March 21 with over 3,250 officers (11.51% of the scheduled workforce) not reporting for duty. Individual airports hit crisis levels: Hobby Airport at 47.4%, George Bush Intercontinental at 42.4%, New Orleans at 34.1%, Atlanta at 33.6%, and JFK at 33.4% callout rates. Over 400 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began on February 13. Trump deployed 'hundreds' of ICE agents to at least 13 major airports starting Monday, though AFGE condemned the plan as ICE agents lack aviation security training and certification. Senator Murkowski called it a 'bad idea.' The workforce crisis converges with peak Iranian cyber threat activity while CISA operates at approximately 38% staffing.
The prior IC brief reported the Mullin DHS confirmation and 366 TSA officers lost. Today's data shows acceleration: 400+ officers now lost (up from 366), and individual airport callout rates (47.4% at Hobby) far exceed the prior national average (11.76%). The deployment of ICE to airports is operationally unprecedented and creates a second-order IC concern: ICE agents diverted to TSA duties reduce enforcement capacity elsewhere, including counterintelligence-relevant border operations.