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TSA plans to send more airport screeners to Mexico border

The Trump administration plans to send more than 650 Transportation Security Administration employees to help law enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border.

FILE - A TSA agent watches an xray monitor while screening luggage at a special TSA Pre-check lane at Terminal C of the LaGuardia Airport on Jan. 27, 2014 in New York City. The Transportation Security Administration plans to send more than 650 airport screeners and federal air marshals to beef up protection along the U.S.-Mexico border. (John Moore / Getty Images / TNS)
FILE - A TSA agent watches an xray monitor while screening luggage at a special TSA Pre-check lane at Terminal C of the LaGuardia Airport on Jan. 27, 2014 in New York City. The Transportation Security Administration plans to send more than 650 airport screeners and federal air marshals to beef up protection along the U.S.-Mexico border. (John Moore / Getty Images / TNS)Read moreJohn Moore / MCT
    by The Associated Press, The Associated Press
    Published 

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration plans to send more than 650 airport screeners and federal air marshals to beef up protection along the U.S.-Mexico border.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings says TSA tells his committee it has dispatched nearly 200 screeners and supervisors and 172 air marshals to the border already and plans to send another 294.

"The administration's actions are not helping aviation security, they are harming it," the Maryland Democrat said during a hearing Tuesday on TSA shortcomings.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) defended the Trump administration.

"Why are they sending TSA personnel to the border? Because there's a crisis," he said.

TSA has more than 60,000 employees.

Also at the hearing, government officials said TSA hasn’t fixed weaknesses in airport security.