The Transportation Security Administration is planning to send as many as 175 air marshals and hundreds of other staffers to assist with immigration duties along the southern border, CNN is reporting.
The news network attributed its information to an internal email it obtained.
Some parts of TSA will be asked to contribute “around 10%” of its workforce, the email stated. In addition to the air marshals, the deployment will include as many as “400 people from Security Ops,” CNN said attributing the information to the email.
The move comes as the busy summer travel season is about to begin, CNN noted. But so far, the deployment will not include uniformed airport screeners.
"There is now immediate need for more help from TSA at the SW border," a senior TSA official, Gary Renfrow, wrote in the email to agency regional management. "TSA has committed to support with 400 people from Security Ops…”
"We also understand that we are accepting some risk as we enter a very busy summer.”
CNN pointed out the deployment comes as the number of illegal border crossings is spiking. The news network said before Kirstjen Nielsen was ousted as Homeland Security secretary last month, she had asked for volunteers, including those who were working for TSA , to help out at the border.
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