The El Paso City Council has rejected a plan to remove a political video from the El Paso International Airport.
The City Council was split on a plan to work with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to remove a controversial video of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that has been playing at the El Paso airport and airports nationwide. The video, meant to prepare travelers for possible slowdowns because of the ongoing government shutdown, attempts to cast blame on Congressional Democrats for the shutdown despite Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House.
Mayor Pro Tempore Alejandra Chávez, City Representative Dr. Josh Acevedo, District 2 and City Representative Deanna M. Rocha, District 3, speak on amendments being made to the budget plan at El Paso City Hall on July 31, 2025.
City Reps. Josh Acevedo, Deanna Maldonado-Rocha, Cynthia Trejo and Chris Canales voted in favor of the plan, while city Reps. Alejandra Chavez, Ivan Niño, Art Fierro and Lily Limón voted against it. Mayor Renard Johnson cast the tie-breaking vote to kill the plan.
Chavez’s vote was particularly confusing as she was a signatory on an Oct. 15 letter to TSA Federal Security Director Jared Babin calling for the video to be removed. Council members noted that Babin responded and declined their request to stop airing the video.
For Acevedo, who introduced the plan during the City Council meeting Tuesday, Oct. 28, the proposal marked an attempt at collaboration with the federal authorities to remove a video that has been the recent bane of many air travelers who have complained to their city representatives.
“The big thing here was that political content should not be played in airports like this,” Acevedo said. “Any messages from government officials should be neutral information related to customer services, safety and security.”
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“I think the big thing here is that no matter who is in the White House, whatever party’s in the White House, there shouldn’t be any partisan language coming from our federal agencies.”
Some of his colleagues, however, argued that the video was not within the city’s jurisdiction because it was broadcast by federal authorities, not El Paso airport personnel.
“Our focus shouldn’t be on trying to be rational with a federal government that is un-rational and who does not care about the health and security of our country; instead, they’re worried about doing petty things like this,” Fierro said. “What our focus should be on is … on the food security of people who may not be receiving their check in the future …”
“In my opinion, mayor, this is a non-issue,” he added.
For his part, Johnson noted that federal authorities have already stated that the video would continue to play and that using local resources would likely be fruitless.
Mayor of El Paso Renard Johnson speaks during the first council meeting of the year on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at El Paso City Hall.
“That particular video, we all have our feelings about it, but I personally think that to go up against an agency that has already told us a number of times that they’re not going to take it down … I don’t think it’s prudent to be spending the city’s money, our taxpayers’ dollars, to have our city manager and city attorney trying to get them to remove a video and get the same response we got,” Johnson said. “This is a time right now where we have federal employees, to include the TSA agents, to include our FAA, to include a number of federal employees, who are hurting, and to continue to go down this path that we’re attempting to go down, with no result that we’re going to get, to develop an MOU … I’m not sure what this is going to cost the city, but I would rather spend some of these resources on fixing potholes and pulling weeds and doing those things.”
US Rep. Veronica Escobar weighs in
Following the City Council’s vote, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar took the unusual step of weighing in, expressing frustration with the city’s refusal to hold the Trump administration accountable for its continued violation of federal law.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, speaks during a rally hosted by Beto O’Rourke with U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas and Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, at the Elmont Event Center’s Grand Ballroom in El Paso on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025.
“Many El Pasoans — myself included — were outraged by the partisan, unlawful video of Kristi Noem being shown by TSA at our airport,” Escobar, D-El Paso, said in a statement. “Members of Congress and members of the Administration must follow the law outlined by the Hatch Act, and the Noem video, and her use of public assets for political messaging is a clear violation of it.”
Escobar offered praise for Acevedo, who she said “sought to protect the city of El Paso’s airport from being used in an egregious political manner by this administration” and “preserve the non-partisan nature of government operations.”
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“I cannot emphasize enough that fighting authoritarianism happens in both big and little ways,” she added. “Things we never thought possible or that are considered outside the norm only become normalized if we, the people, allow them to be.”
Adam Powell covers government and politics for the El Paso Times and can be reached via email at apowell@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: City Council votes down effort to pull TSA shutdown video from airport