Trump Official Says ICE Could Stay at Airports Even as TSA Gets Paid
White House “border czar” Tom Homan said Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could remain at U.S. airports to assist security operations even though Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials are set to receive their paychecks.
Homan, in news appearances Sunday, said that ICE’s presence at American airports hinges on how many TSA agents report back to work. More than 500 TSA workers have quit since a partial government shutdown in February over funding for the TSA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security. Thousands of TSA employees, who as essential workers are expected to work without pay during the shutdown, called out sick, with many taking on other jobs to make ends meet, resulting in travelers trapped in long lines at airport security checkpoints.
Congress is still at an impasse over the funding of DHS, as Democrats and Republicans debate over immigration enforcement reforms. But President Donald Trump, who had previously ordered the deployment of ICE agents to mitigate the effects on American travel and put pressure on Democrats to cut a deal, announced late last week that he would fund TSA.
But when asked on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday about whether ICE will stay in airports after TSA workers get their pay and backpay, Homan said, “We’ll see.”
“It depends how many TSA agents come back to work, how many TSA agents have actually quit and have no plan on coming back to work,” Homan added. “I’m working very closely with the TSA administrator and the ICE director to decide what airport needs what.”
Appearing on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Homan said that ICE’s presence in airports will continue “until the airports feel like they’re 100%, in a posture where they can do normal operations,” reiterating that having less TSA agents returning to work “means we'll keep more ICE agents there.”
Is ICE helping?
The deployment of ICE, an agency that has raked in controversy for its violent enforcement of Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, to assist in airport security operations has prompted mixed reactions. Democratic leaders have warned of ICE’s potential brutality toward travelers, while some travelers have indicated that their presence has been helpful.
But reports of ICE’s helpfulness have also been mixed. After the plan was announced, the union representing TSA workers warned that ICE agents were not properly trained to fill in for the duties of TSA agents. And days after ICE was deployed to U.S. airports on March 23, the Washington Post reported that the immigration agents’ presence had not reduced queues, citing data from affected airports, which had some travelers taking four or more hours to clear security.
Even White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt admitted on March 25 that wait times at airports had not decreased “as much as we like,” despite ICE’s assistance.
Several TSA agents TIME spoke to suggested that ICE agents in some cases got in the way of actual work. One TSA agent from LaGuardia told Curbed that some ICE officers were “getting paid to do nothing” in airports.
Homan, however, has defended ICE presence at airports. “The wait lines have decreased. I was in Houston—wait lines decreased in about half. We got additional agents going to Baltimore yesterday to bring those lines down.” The Baltimore-Washington International Airport said wait times at security checkpoints “improved significantly” on Sunday, though it did not attribute the improvement to ICE, and it still warned travelers to arrive 3 hours before their scheduled departures.
“I can understand the TSA union’s position,” Homan said amid the criticisms about ICE doing their job in airports. “They want to be paid. And they’re frustrated. But, however, the facts are, every place we send ICE officers, the lines have decreased. And they need to decrease more.”