Amid the growing impact of the government shutdown on federal services, President Donald Trump announced the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to various airports across the country, with the aim of easing the pressure on the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has been affected by resignations and staff absences.
The measure, which will be implemented gradually, will be coordinated by Tom Homan, who confirmed that the ICE agents will assist with operational tasks within the airports, without replacing specialized functions.
“This is about helping the TSA fulfill its mission and getting the American public through the airport as quickly as possible, while respecting all security rules and protocols,” Homan said on CNN’s “State of the Union with Dana Bash.”
The announcement comes at a critical time for the U.S. airport network. Since the start of the government shutdown, triggered by the lack of agreement in Congress on funding legislation, thousands of federal employees have had their salaries suspended. Among the hardest hit are TSA agents, responsible for security checks at airports.
According to data from the Department of Homeland Security, more than 400 TSA employees have resigned since the beginning of the budget crisis. This is compounded by an increase in absences from work, many of them related to the inability to cover basic expenses such as transportation or childcare without income.
As a direct consequence, airports across the United States began experiencing long lines at security checkpoints, with delays in some cases exceeding three hours. This situation has generated concern among both authorities and the airline industry, especially given the possibility that the government shutdown could be prolonged.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that the ongoing conflict could further worsen the situation, with more resignations and absences among TSA personnel, leading to further travel disruptions.
In this context, Homan explained that the ICE deployment will focus on supporting secondary tasks within airports, allowing TSA agents to concentrate on key functions such as baggage and passenger screening.
“We’re simply there to assist the TSA in doing their job in areas that don’t require their specialized expertise, like X-ray screening; we don’t handle that,” Homan said. “But we can perform functions to free up TSA agents from less critical tasks, such as monitoring an exit so they can return to the scanning machines and expedite the flow of people. We’re helping our fellow TSA agents.”
The plan prioritizes airports with the highest levels of congestion, especially those with the longest delays. Meanwhile, authorities indicated that ICE will continue to perform its regular immigration enforcement functions.
However, the initiative was not without criticism. From the Democratic opposition, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries questioned the measure and linked it to the budget dispute surrounding the funding of the Department of Homeland Security.
“It’s unfortunate that Republicans have decided they prefer to force TSA agents to work without pay, causing inconvenience to millions of Americans across the country, and now potentially exposing them to untrained ICE agents and creating chaos at airports nationwide, rather than reining in ICE agents,” Jeffries told CNN’s Dana Bash.
The deployment was also analyzed by Republican lawmakers, such as Senator John Kennedy, who considered the measure “could be helpful” as a partial solution to the long lines, although he clarified that it will not solve the underlying problem.
“If they plan to use some ICE agents to help with crowd control and thus free up TSA personnel to conduct screenings, I can imagine a scenario where that could be helpful,” he said.
Meanwhile, negotiations in Congress continue without an immediate resolution. Republicans and Democrats maintain key differences over the immigration policies pursued by Trump, which has stalled the passage of the budget needed to fully restore the government’s operations.
Among the sticking points are the Democrats’ demands to limit certain ICE practices, such as the requirement for warrants in immigration enforcement operations.
