Event Honoring Queens TSA Agents Gets Shut Down

Passengers stand in line as they wait to pass through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at LaGuardia airport. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II).

By Jonathan Sperling

An event designed to support Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers at LaGuardia Airport who are impacted by the partial government shutdown was itself shut down, the City Council announced on Friday.

Councilmembers Francisco Moya and Robert E. Cornegy, Jr. along with other elected officials and LaGuardia employees had scheduled to host a luncheon at Terminal B to thank TSA agents, who have been working without pay amid the partial government shutdown.

Around 30 minutes before the event was set to begin at 11 a.m. Friday, however, members of the press received an email noting that the event had been cancelled. Within the email chain, the text of the initial press release was struck through completely.

“As American Airlines employees, we were lucky enough to receive paychecks this week. Lorrain and I felt a need to do something for the agents who maintain our security while we are at work. So we organized the luncheon as a sign of our appreciation and to show that we stand as one in these times of political disorder,” Obina Escort, an American Airlines employee who also serves as an Auxiliary Police Officer, said in a statement issued on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear why the event was cancelled. The phone number for Figs, the restaurant where the event was supposed to take place was out of service.