ICE to Airports: DHS Shutdown Triggers Security Line Assistance

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will begin assisting with airport security on Monday, according to Border Czar Tom Homan, as the partial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown enters its second month.

President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to deploy ICE agents to airports nationwide to address escalating security lines and traveler delays caused by the ongoing shutdown. Homan confirmed the deployment during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” stating that ICE personnel will “help TSA move those lines along.”

The ICE agents will focus on tasks that do not require the specialized training of TSA screeners, such as guarding exit doors to free up TSA officers for passenger screening, Homan explained. “We’re simply there to help TSA do their jobs in areas that don’t need their specialized expertise,” he said.

The deployment comes as the DHS shutdown, which began February 14, continues to strain airport operations. Many TSA agents have either called out of work without pay or resigned, exacerbating staffing shortages. NBC News reported that more than 400 TSA officers have left their positions since the start of the shutdown.

At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, security wait times reached nearly two and a half hours on Sunday morning, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Similar delays have been reported at airports across the country, including those in the Recent York and Atlanta areas, as highlighted by FOX 5 Atlanta and FOX 5 New York.

Democrats have linked funding for DHS to statutory changes in immigration enforcement practices, following the fatal shootings of two U.S. Citizens by ICE agents in Minneapolis. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries criticized the plan to deploy ICE agents to airports, warning on CNN that “the last thing that the American people need are for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports all across the country, potentially to brutalize or, in some instances, kill them.”

The Trump administration has not clarified the specific roles ICE agents will undertake at airports, given their differing training from TSA screeners, who undergo months of specialized instruction. Former TSA officer Shamara Fielder, speaking to CNN, emphasized the distinction, stating, “They’re cops… At the end of the day, that’s a whole other type of training. We’re taught to be more so customer friendly. We’re taught to be more so understanding of people’s concerns, law enforcement, that’s not their realm.”

Negotiations to end the impasse on Capitol Hill appear stalled ahead of a scheduled recess, with few signs of a breakthrough in funding DHS, which employs 61,000 TSA employees currently working without pay.