- TSA staffing shortages disrupt major airport travel.
- ICE agents not specifically trained for TSA duties.
- Democrat calls Trump’s ICE airport plan reckless.
US President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to US airports if congressional Democrats do not immediately agree to fund airport security.
Transportation Security Administration staff will lose their second full paycheck on March 27 amid a partial government shutdown in its 36th day as lawmakers clash over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the TSA and ICE.
TSA agents have called in sick as salaries have dried up and a shortage of security officers has disrupted travel at major airports. More than 400 TSA workers have resigned since the partial shutdown began on Feb. 14, NBC News reported Saturday, citing DHS.
“I will move our brilliant, patriotic ICE agents to airports, where they will provide security like never before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
In a later post, Trump said the deployment would begin Monday “if Democrats do not allow fair and adequate security at our airports and elsewhere in our country.”
The TSA has about 65,000 employees, including 50,000 airport security officers.
ICE, central to the Trump administration’s immigration repression
ICE agents are not specifically trained for airport security, which is the purview of the TSA. ICE has played a central role in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, drawing criticism from many Democrats, civil liberties advocates and immigration advocacy groups.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., criticized Trump’s proposal as “another reckless and illegal threat to misuse ICE agents.”
“They seem to have no idea what the limits of ICE are, and I think the United States would be absolutely dismayed to see ICE agents roaming around airports, just as they have been kicking down doors in homes,” Blumenthal told reporters in Washington.
Homeland Security has historically shifted resources between agencies during emergency personnel shortages, said Stewart Baker, who was a DHS policy official in President George W. Bush’s administration. Keeping the TSA without paying staff creates “serious problems” for the agency, Baker said.
Using ICE agents for airport security “may be slower than using trained people, but it would be better than having no one at all,” he added.
ICE, along with Customs and Border Protection, has deployed agents in recent months to multiple areas as part of the crackdown, most recently in Minnesota in an operation that resulted in agents shooting and killing U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Their deaths sparked a backlash and led the Trump administration to take a more targeted approach in Minnesota.
Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this month amid growing criticism of the administration’s immigration tactics. The U.S. Senate is considering the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., as the next DHS secretary.
Trump has said his immigration policies are aimed at curbing illegal immigration and improving national security.
Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union said the TSA had provided lists of airport travelers to ICE, calling the move a break with previous TSA practices.
