Lawmakers clashed Tuesday over the Trump administration's move to send hundreds of Transportation Security Administration employees to the U.S.-Mexico border, and one airport official warned it could lead to long checkpoint lines this summer.
The TSA is asking federal air marshals, airport screeners and others to volunteer to support a buildup of federal agents along the border who are dealing with waves of migrants.
"It just goes to show what a crisis we have down on the border," Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., said during a hearing.
But the Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said shifting airport workers to the border was "the contrived manufacturing of a crisis to the detriment of the TSA."
Travel industry groups have expressed concern that the shift could leave airports understaffed during the peak summer season.
The movement of TSA screeners "has all airports very concerned," said Lance Lyttle, managing director of aviation for the Port of Seattle, which operates Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
"Significant diversion of (TSA officers) would reduce TSA's ability to open all security lanes during morning peak this summer, which could result in lines out to our garage as often as four to five days per week," Lyttle said.
TSA says it will move fewer than 1% of its 60,000 employees to the border and that security operations will continue uninterrupted.
The agency says employees who volunteer for border work will handle transportation, meal distribution and other tasks, but won't perform law-enforcement duties.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military's MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.
The Houthis said they shot down the Predator with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.
The Houthis described the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country's Saada province.
Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi's slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”
The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.
Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting Thursday's shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year.
Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.
The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily in the last months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the last week.
A Houthi supporter raises a mock rocket during a rally against the U.S. and Israel and to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, April. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
