Vacationers wait in line at a Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport (ATL) in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Ilya Nouberge | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
White Home Border Safety Director Tom Homan stated Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers will likely be despatched to airports on Monday to assist ease safety strains because of the Division of Homeland Safety shutdown.
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to ship ICE brokers to airports because the shutdown enters its second month, inflicting complications for vacationers passing via hours-long Transportation Safety Administration safety strains.
Homan appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and confirmed that ICE could be deployed on Monday.
“We’ll be on the airport tomorrow to assist TSA transfer ahead on these routes,” Homan stated, including that ICE will help in areas corresponding to exit door safety to alleviate TSA personnel to display screen vacationers. “We’re merely there to help with work in areas that don’t require TSA experience.”
Homan stated the small print of the plan are nonetheless being mentioned however will likely be finalized by Monday morning, when ICE officers will likely be on the scene.
“By the tip of at present, we’ll have a plan in place about which airport to take it from and the place to ship it to,” Homan stated. “It is a work in progress.”
The transfer to introduce ICE comes because the DHS shutdown, which started on February 14, has strained airport employees. Many TSA workers have spoken out or give up altogether fairly than work with out pay. Greater than 400 TSA workers have give up their jobs because the begin of the lockdown, NBC Information reported.
Everett Kelly, president of the American Federation of Authorities Staff, condemned the transfer.
“ICE officers aren’t educated or licensed in aviation safety,” Kelly stated in a press release. “TSA officers spend months studying the right way to detect explosives, weapons, and threats particularly designed to evade detection at checkpoints. These expertise require specialised instruction, on-the-job coaching, and ongoing recertification. They can’t be improvised.”
He added: “Placing untrained personnel at safety checkpoints doesn’t fill a niche; it creates a niche.”
Kelly known as on Congress to “cease enjoying politics and get to work” to fund the TSA.
A spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey advised MS NOW that the choice to rent federal workers on the two New York Metropolis airports the company serves is “on maintain.”[s] Work with the Division of Homeland Safety. ”
“The Port Authority expects personnel assigned to help passenger processing features to be appropriately educated and centered on supporting screening operations, according to sustaining the security, integrity and effectivity of the airport’s safety processes and defending the airborne public,” the spokesperson stated.
Democrats are demanding modifications to immigration enforcement practices in trade for funding for DHS after two Individuals have been shot and killed by ICE in Minneapolis.
Home Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries of New York denounced plans to deploy ICE brokers to airports.
“The very last thing Individuals need is to see untrained ICE brokers deployed to airports throughout the nation, and in some circumstances brutalized and even killed,” Jeffries stated on CNN.
However Jeffries instructed Democrats wouldn’t again away from their calls for in trade for funding for DHS.
“It’s unlucky that Republicans determined that fairly than carry ICE brokers below management, they’d fairly power TSA brokers to work with out pay, inconvenience hundreds of thousands of Individuals throughout the nation, and expose them to untrained ICE brokers who may trigger chaos at airports throughout the nation,” Jeffries stated. “Our view is that they should be reined in, and that we should not put a single penny of our tax {dollars} into them till we make daring, dramatic and significant modifications.”
Democratic leaders additionally proposed funding the TSA and all different DHS companies besides ICE and Customs and Border Safety. Democrats have tried to advance such laws a number of instances, however Republicans have blocked its passage for concern of dropping their affect to finally fund ICE and CBP.
Some Republican lawmakers favor the concept of separating ICE and CBP funding from the remainder of DHS, together with the TSA, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Administration Company, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who heads the Senate Commerce Committee, instructed the concept in an interview with The Hill on Saturday. Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) additionally introduced up the concept in an interview on C-SPAN about “ceasefire.” Messrs. Kennedy and Cruz stated Republicans would attempt to move funding for ICE via the reconciliation course of, which might require solely 50 votes within the Senate.
“Let’s preserve every little thing open besides ICE,” Kennedy stated. “However what I can let you know is what is going on to occur subsequent is that Republicans will think about a reconciliation invoice that will require solely Republican votes to fund ICE.”
