Air marshals want out of TSA and into a new law enforcement agency

Federal air marshals are tired of being left up in the air.

Not only do these law enforcement officers want to do more on-the-ground police work, they also want a divorce from their organizational home, the Transportation Security Administration.

“The air marshals feel like they are not performing law enforcement duties within the TSA,” Air Marshal Association President John Casaretti said during a Tuesday interview. The association, a labor organization claiming half the marshals as members, proposes a separate law enforcement agency for the marshals within the Department of Homeland Security, which includes TSA, or in the Transportation Department.

A working group of about 35 FAMs, as the marshals are called, “came to the conclusion that in order to have a fully rounded program where we’re protecting transportation and aviation, we have to do the full suite of law enforcement work,” he added.

In addition to their in-flight responsibilities, that would mean acting more like federal special agents, including conducting investigations, probing insider threats and responding to federal incidents at checkpoints. Now, Casaretti said “we’re pretty much on aircraft” and lack the level of intelligence to “know specifically why we’re on the aircraft that we’re on.”

The Federal Air Marshal Service began in 1962 to combat air hijacking and greatly expanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in which airliners were hijacked midflight. For security reasons, TSA does not release the number of marshals, who operate nationally and on certain foreign flights.

The association’s plan might find some sympathy in Congress, where Casaretti told a House panel last week that “air marshals believe that a lack of law enforcement culture makes the TSA either unable or unwilling to develop the FAM service to its fullest potential.”

At the House Homeland Security Committee hearing, transportation and maritime security subcommittee chairman Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-Fla.) said “it is critical that we are proactive in staying ahead of the threat and continually look for opportunities to sharpen our capabilities and enhance our technologies. In this context, I believe it is essential to reevaluate the role of federal air marshals in aviation security. I’m concerned that air marshals are not being utilized effectively.”

Gimenez did not specifically endorse removing FAMs from TSA, but in a follow-up statement to The Washington Post he said their concerns will be investigated by the committee “and we will look at potential solutions to best advance the mission of deterring terrorists and other criminals from targeting the traveling public.”

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (Miss.), the leading Democrat on the full committee, who has been supportive of the marshals and championed an equity pay plan for TSA, does not support a split.

He opposes taking FAMs out of TSA, he said by email, because “TSA is tasked with securing aviation based on current intelligence and deploys a variety of security measures to do so. FAMs are one layer of security, and they are most effective and provide the most value when deployed in coordination with TSA’s other layers of security.”

TSA also does not want a divorce. “TSA’s Federal Air Marshal Service remains committed to its most valuable resource - its workforce of Federal Air Marshals,” said an agency statement. “The Federal Air Marshal Service being positioned within TSA strengthens the organization’s ability to accomplish its evolving transportation security mission and best supports our law enforcement partners.”

The culture divide the FAMs cite is inadvertently referenced by TSA on its website. It says “FAM’s job like no other at TSA.” That’s part of the problem for the marshals, according to Casaretti, who said “the system’s not built to support us.”

Yet, the website’s description of FAMs duties reflects what they would like to do much more often. FAMs are “an innovative, risk- and intelligence-based federal law enforcement organization,” according to the website, and “perform crucial law enforcement responsibilities within airports, trains, bus stations and other venues to make sure our aviation and surface transportation systems are safe and secure.”

Casaretti called that statement “a noncommittal sound bite.” It’s similar to what he said air marshals were told as he and colleagues left other police agencies to join the force when it expanded after 9/11. “But things quickly went off path,” he added.

“We are not the primary call for TSA for law enforcement incidents,” he complained, “which we think is pretty ridiculous.” Local police respond to security checkpoint incidents, for example, “but the local police can only enforce laws up to the local statute. They let things go by like currency and monetary reporting violations.”

Marshals, he said, “want to be working in support of actual casework where we have actual curated intelligence.”

TSA, which was not represented at the hearing, told The Post that FAMs employee engagement surveys show improvement from 2022 to 2023, including a 14-percentage-point increase in an index that includes recommending their workplace to others.

“The organization has modified its deployments to maintain security while considering the impact on the health and wellness of the workforce,” a TSA spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Another part of the culture Casaretti wants changed is “our exhausted, overworked schedule” that hurts employee morale and family relations. He complained about 20-hour days, working “without rest breaks or overtime compensation,” crossing multiple time zones on outbound flights and returning without adequate breaks.

“The issues air marshals face have brought some agents and their families to the breaking point,” Casaretti said. “We have lost many to suicide and other mental health issues.”

Sixteen marshals have died by suicide since 2002, according to TSA. It said the agency provides programs “to enrich careers as well as mental and physical health and wellness,” including suicide prevention.

“We must address long-standing health and well-being issues that are putting a huge strain on the workforce,” Thompson said by email. “We’ve tragically lost far too many FAMs to suicide and its time we address the mental health of our Federal law enforcement head-on.”

For the air marshals, most “do their jobs despite the TSA,” Casaretti emphasized by email, “not because of the TSA.”