ICE officers appear at TSA lines as DHS funding dispute stretches travel delays
Armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in tactical gear were visible near Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at multiple major U.S. airports on Monday, following President Donald Trump’s order to deploy immigration officers during a partial government shutdown that has disrupted air travel.
Associated Press reporters observed ICE officers patrolling terminals and lingering near long security lines at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International, John F. Kennedy International in New York, Newark Liberty International in New Jersey, George Bush Intercontinental in Houston and Louis Armstrong International outside New Orleans. A handful of other airports, including Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International, also confirmed ICE would be on-site, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said his office was monitoring the federal officers’ deployment at O’Hare International.
Federal law enforcement officers are often present in airports, including Customs and Border Protection screening arriving passengers and Homeland Security Investigations conducting criminal inquiries linked to cross-border activity. But immigration agents are less commonly visible at TSA checkpoints, which handle security screening for domestic air travel.
The ICE presence arrived amid an ongoing funding impasse in Washington. Hundreds of thousands of Homeland Security workers, including TSA personnel, have worked without pay since Congress failed to renew DHS funding last month, with the lapse beginning Feb. 14. While routine DHS funding used to pay TSA agents has lapsed, ICE and other immigration enforcement personnel have continued receiving paychecks, a situation the report tied to Trump’s tax-cut law enacted last year.
The White House said it would supplement TSA staffing at certain airports, but provided limited details about what ICE officers would be doing. The TSA later responded in a statement posted to social media Monday, saying “TSA is grateful to our DHS brothers and sisters at ICE for stepping up to support our officers,” adding that “there’s only one guaranteed way to end the chaos at America’s airports: Democrats must come back to the table and fully fund DHS.”
The dispute is also playing out through negotiations between top congressional negotiators and the White House. A White House request for Trump to meet with Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democratic negotiator, was denied, according to another person granted anonymity to discuss private talks. The report also said White House staff had pitched an approach that would fund DHS except for immigration operations central to the dispute, but that Trump rejected the plan and later escalated demands that senators approve the “SAVE America Act,” a strict proof-of-citizenship voting bill described as having essentially no chance of passing Congress.
On the policy terms driving the shutdown, Democrats have continued to demand major changes to federal immigration operations, including requirements that ICE officers obtain a judge’s warrant before forcefully entering homes, stop allowing officers to wear masks, and require officers to provide clear identifying information on uniforms. The report said ICE officers at airports appeared largely not masked Monday, following an earlier direction by Trump.
Some aviation workers and union leaders warned that positioning immigration officers at security checkpoints could heighten tensions, arguing that ICE officers do not have the same training as TSA workers. Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement that his members “deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”
Whether ICE would take on a broader role beyond monitoring lines remained unclear. On Sunday, Trump said federal immigration officers could guard exit lanes or check passenger IDs, and the report said he later suggested he could deploy the National Guard at airports as well. Trump also said in Memphis on Monday that ICE and TSA had been “working together so far very well,” while adding he would “bring out the National Guard” if additional personnel was needed.
At the same time, airport operators and travelers reported persistent delays. At Hartsfield–Jackson in Atlanta, the airport urged passengers to allow at least four hours for both domestic and international screenings. The check-in line was so long Monday that it snaked from the TSA screening area to the atrium, through baggage claim and out the entrance doors, with people waiting outside, while ICE officers were seen patrolling the terminal area but were not observed checking IDs or interacting with passengers.
Travelers described mixed reactions to the federal officers’ visibility. Donna Troupe, flying from Atlanta to Miami, said she did not take issue with ICE’s presence but was unsure how much they were needed, adding that “When I’ve seen them, they’ve just been standing around talking.” Another traveler, Daniela Dominguez, said she was concerned some people would find the sight of ICE unnerving, saying, “I bet a lot of people have a lot of anxiety coming to the airport.”
In New Orleans, John Hoffman arrived five hours before his flight to Spokane, Washington, after missing his trip the day before, and said security lines seemed to be moving faster Monday as federal officers monitored lines, though he questioned whether the travel and lodging expenses to deploy ICE officers were worth it.
Elsewhere, travel disruptions continued alongside the DHS staffing strain. The report said many travelers on the East Coast faced additional issues after a Sunday night collision that killed two people and injured dozens of others on the runway of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, which was temporarily shut down as air traffic was diverted. The broader picture for TSA has also included missed paychecks, with some TSA agents calling in sick or quitting during the shutdown and some airports closing checkpoints at times, contributing to fluctuating wait times.
In data cited by the report, TSA call-out rates climbed over the weekend: nationwide on Sunday, 11.8% of TSA agents missed work—described as the highest rate of the shutdown so far—with more than 3,450 officers calling out, according to DHS. The department also said more than 400 officers have quit during the shutdown, and some critics have accused the government of using TSA workers as leverage in the budget fight while aviation unions raised additional safety concerns about the ICE deployment.