CBP support staff face financial strain as partial government shutdown reaches day 42

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Leaders in Washington are scrambling to find a way to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, with recent efforts focusing heavily on getting thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers paid.

On Friday afternoon, March 27, President Trump signed an emergency order to immediately pay TSA workers who have missed paychecks during the six-week shutdown. The White House stated the money will come from the major tax cut bill signed into law last year, which funneled extra funds to DHS. The move came just an hour after House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected a Senate-passed bill to fund TSA and most of Homeland Security. Those first TSA paychecks could arrive as early as Monday.

But while the national spotlight remains heavily fixed on TSA employees, many U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) support staff, working behind the scenes at El Paso’s ports of entry, are still going without pay.

While frontline CBP officers are currently still drawing paychecks due to separate, previously secured funding, the administrative and technical staff are not. According to local union leaders, the financial uncertainty for these workers is becoming increasingly severe.

“We’re tired of being the pawns of the government. I mean, it’s gotta stop. This political back and forth, we don’t want to be part of it,” said Gustavo Sanchez, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), Chapter 143, and a CBP officer. “We took an oath to protect this country and do our job, and they’re stymieing this.”

The local NTEU chapter represents CBP technicians and mission support assistants (MSA’s) in El Paso and throughout Southeast New Mexico all the way up to Albuquerque. Sanchez said 140 of these employees have now gone about six weeks without a paycheck. Almost half of those impacted work directly at El Paso’s ports of entry.

“MSA’s provide us with administrative assistance throughout the ports — anything from schedules, anything that’s administrative, even, travel. They do all the administrative work that allows us to be up on the frontlines,” Sanchez said. “The technicians assist us a little bit more out in the field. They can go ahead and provide us support by augmenting our operations. They can provide us with assistance fueling our mobile lights — anything that’s technical in nature. They’re there to assist us that way so we’re in the front lines.” 

Sanchez said that in the meantime, local CBP leadership is exploring temporary measures to help ease the burden on unpaid workers, including offering adjusted schedules, telework options, and coordinated carpooling. However, he stressed that these are only temporary relief measures.

“Our employees are the primary caregivers of their family, so the bills are starting to pile up,” Sanchez explained. “They can’t pay their simple utilities, their mortgage, or their car payments. There might be some help out there by the agencies, but when it comes down to food, they’re going to have to start looking into getting assistance.”

For now, Sanchez said these employees are still showing up to work, doing their part to keep CBP officers on the frontlines at the ports. But he warns the situation is unsustainable for many families. If these workers are eventually forced to stay home, he cautions it will directly lead to strained border operations and even longer wait times on the international bridges.

Adding to the frustration is the fact that this is not an isolated incident for these workers. These same employees went 43 days without pay during a shutdown last fall. Barely four months later, they find themselves caught in the middle of yet another record-breaking government shutdown, currently that on Friday reached its 42nd day.

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