The Trump administration announced Saturday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be deployed to assist at airport security checkpoints, as the ongoing partial government shutdown continues to strain Transportation Security Administration operations.
More than 400 TSA agents across the country have quit since the partial shutdown began, with agents calling out or resigning after going without paychecks for weeks. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he expects additional TSA agents to quit this week as the situation worsens.
What the Left Is Saying
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., condemned the decision to send ICE agents to airports, calling it dangerous. '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,' Schumer said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called the move 'one of the biggest potential self-inflicted wounds for this administration.' He 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.'
Democrats have insisted that any DHS funding bill include new requirements for ICE agents, including forcing them to wear identification and blocking them from wearing face coverings. Senate Democrats blocked Republican efforts to fully fund DHS on Friday in a 47-37 vote.
What the Right Is Saying
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy defended the decision, saying President Trump is 'trying to take that leverage away and not make the American people suffer' by sending ICE agents to airports. Duffy pinned long TSA wait times on Democrats, saying 'Democrats want to see long lines at airports as leverage.'
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he doesn't believe Trump 'had a choice' given the long lines at airports, though he expressed concern about ICE agents' lack of training. '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.
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,' Thune said Saturday.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, predicted the ICE deployment would not be helpful to ongoing negotiations. 'I look at the idea of, kind of, airdropping or temporarily reassigning ICE agents to the airport as not a fix that is going to encourage us here to resolve this impasse,' she said.
What the Numbers Show
More than 400 TSA agents have quit since the partial DHS shutdown began, according to administration officials. The Senate failed to pass a stand-alone bill to fund TSA in a 41-49 vote Saturday, with Republicans blocking Democratic efforts.
ICE is not affected by the ongoing DHS shutdown because the agency received $75 billion in additional funds from the president's major legislative package signed into law last year. Sixteen senators missed the Friday vote on DHS funding.
The Bottom Line
The deployment of ICE agents to airports represents the administration's response to mounting traveler complaints about long security lines during the DHS shutdown. Democrats have called the move unsafe and politically motivated, while some Republicans have expressed skepticism about its effectiveness. The two sides remain deadlocked over DHS funding, with bipartisan negotiations ongoing since mid-February.