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White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday that ICE agents will deploy to airports across the country Monday to assist TSA officers with security at airport entrances and exits where lines have been particularly long in recent weeks.
Homan told CNN’s “State of the Union” he was currently working on a plan for the deployment with the leaders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Transportation Security Administration. He said he believed it would begin at large airports that have seen longest wait times and that agents would cover security points but wouldn’t provide help with baggage screenings.
“You know, certainly a highly trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit. Make sure people don’t go through those exits, enter an airport through the exits and stuff like that, relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines,” Homan added.
His remarks come after President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would deploy ICE agents to airports as soon as Monday to help ease long lines.
“ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!” he wrote Saturday on Truth Social.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Sunday that his administration was informed that federal officers from Homeland Security Investigations and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations would be deployed to Atlanta’s airport beginning Monday morning.
“According to federal officials, these personnel will be assigned to support operational needs directed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), including line management and crowd control within the domestic terminals,” Dickens said in a statement.
“Federal officials have indicated that this deployment is not intended to conduct immigration enforcement activities,” he added.
Lines at TSA checkpoints have grown in recent weeks with spring break travel underway and as a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security has dragged on since mid-February.
Homan made it clear Sunday that ICE agents will not assist with TSA security screenings.
“Wherever we can provide extra security — I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine because [they’re] not trained in that. There are certain parts of security that TSA is doing, that we can move them off those jobs and put them in the specialized jobs, help move those lines,” he said.
He added that authorities would continue immigration enforcement activities while at airports.
“We do immigration enforcement at airports all the time. So it’s not going to change. It’s not going to change,” Homan said.
Asked about the plans to deploy ICE agents, a Department of Homeland Security official did not provide any specifics but said Trump “is using every tool available to help American travelers who are facing hours long lines at airports across the country-especially during this spring break and holiday season that is very important for many American families.”
“President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, that are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted. This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions,” acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement that also blamed congressional Democrats for the partial DHS shutdown.
The shutdown, which began when lawmakers in the Senate failed to reach an agreement to fund DHS, has led TSA officers to call out or quit en mass as they’ve gone without paychecks for weeks. More than 400 TSA officers across the country have quit since the shutdown began.
The most TSA callouts during the funding lapse came Saturday, according to a DHS spokesperson, who said more than 3,250 employees — or 11.51% — called out.
In an interview Sunday on ABC News, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pinned long TSA lines on Democrats.
“Democrats want to see long lines at airports as leverage,” Duffy said.
The secretary added that he expects to see more TSA officers quit this week.
“I think you’re going to see more TSA agents as we come to Thursday, Friday, Saturday of next week, they’re going to quit or they’re not going to show up,” Duffy said. “I do think it’s going to get much worse, and as it gets worse, I think that puts pressure on the Congress to come to a resolution.”
By sending ICE agents to airports, “President Trump’s trying to take that leverage away and not make the American people suffer,” the transportation secretary added.
In a rare Saturday session, senators failed to pass a stand-alone bill to fund TSA, with Republicans blocking Democratic efforts in a 41-49 vote.
On Friday, Democrats blocked efforts from Republicans to fully fund DHS in a 47-37 vote that 16 senators missed.
“It is unacceptable for workers and travelers in entire airports to get taken hostage in political games, but that is what the Republicans are doing,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Saturday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., accused Democrats of prolonging the shutdown.
“Thanks to Democrats’ refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Thousands of Homeland Security employees have been working without pay for more than a month. The problems of having an unfunded Homeland Security Department continue to multiply, and Democrats, well, they just seem to shrug,” he said Saturday.
Since mid-February, a bipartisan group of senators have been negotiating to find a way to reopen the agency. Democrats have insisted that any funding bill include new requirements for ICE agents, like forcing them to wear identification and blocking them from wearing face coverings.
Homan joined the negotiations on Capitol Hill last week and told CNN on Sunday that the policy demands from Democrats “haven’t changed.”
“It’s the execution of those policies that we’re talking about,” he added. “And look, we’re having good conversations, but, you know, more conversations need to be had, because we certainly can’t surrender ICE’s authorities and they’re congressionally mandated jobs. So we’re having those discussions. It’s really about policy execution more than policy.”
Republicans have said that they’re willing to negotiate with Democrats on several policy areas, including expanding the use of body-worn cameras and requiring that the footage from those cameras be preserved for congressional oversight. They’ve also said they’re open to limiting ICE enforcement at sensitive locations including hospitals and schools.
ICE is not affected by the ongoing DHS shutdown, as it received $75 billion in additional funds from the “big, beautiful bill,” the president’s major legislative package that he signed into law last year.
Senators had mixed reactions Sunday to the administration’s decision to send ICE agents to airports.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. said he doesn’t believe Trump “had a choice” given the long lines at airports, but he expressed concern about the role ICE agents will play.
“It’s frustrating, because it won’t be as good as somebody that’s trained as a TSA agent. So our airports are not going to be as safe,” Scott said.
Schumer slammed the decision, saying: “This is really disturbing. ICE agents who are untrained and have caused problems everywhere they’ve gone, lurking at our airports. That’s asking for trouble, and it will certainly make the chaos at the airports even worse.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called the decision “one of the biggest potential self-inflicted wounds for this administration” and added that “roaming and ransacking by ICE agents is just going to disrupt and delay airport security and undermine it, all because Donald Trump wants to make a political point.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, predicted the move wouldn’t be helpful to ongoing negotiations to end the DHS shutdown.
“I look at the idea of, kind of, airdropping or temporarily reassigning ICE agents to the airport as not, not a fix that is going to encourage us here to resolve this impasse,” she said.
