The administration announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers will be assigned to selected “hotspot” U.S. airports beginning Monday to assist with TSA screening operations. Officials said the officers will receive training in the days before they begin working at checkpoints.
The move comes as airport security operations have been disrupted by a partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown. TSA screeners have been working without pay during the funding standoff, and DHS officials told reporters the agency has seen staffing shortfalls: roughly 400 TSA employees have resigned since the disruption began, and employee callouts reached a record high over the past weekend. About 50,000 TSA workers were on duty without pay because of the lapse in funding.
Reporters on the ground described long lines and frayed tempers. In New Orleans, travelers queued into a parking garage; at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, weary passengers were handed bottled water. A traveler interviewed in Atlanta, Julie Curtis, said she and her family waited four hours in line and missed their flight, leaving them stranded; her husband has a heart condition.
Officials say the temporary deployment of ICE personnel is intended to ease screening backlogs. The White House has not released a list of the airports that will receive ICE officers. The announcement drew mixed reactions from travelers and airport staff: some said the presence of immigration agents could make people fearful of flying, while others supported bringing in additional personnel to speed processing.
The president of the TSA officers’ union strongly criticized the plan, arguing that TSA employees deserve pay and warning against substituting armed immigration agents who have not worked in screening roles and whose presence could create safety concerns.
The funding impasse in Congress is linked to Democratic anger over a recent ICE operation in Minneapolis — an operation that included the deaths of two people — and to demands from some lawmakers that ICE agents remove masks and clearly display identification. Lawmakers remain divided over DHS funding, prolonging the uncertainty for TSA staff and travelers.
Separately, CBS News noted about 20 U.S. airports use private security firms rather than TSA for screening; those facilities, including international terminals in Kansas City and San Francisco, have not experienced the same staffing disruptions because they operate under different federal arrangements.
The staffing crisis at TSA coincides with broader travel pressures — rising fuel costs, airlines trimming schedules and the onset of spring-break travel — a combination that officials say contributed to the long security lines seen over the weekend.