President Donald Trump has ordered federal immigration agents to U.S. airports to help relieve security line congestion caused by a partial government shutdown, as travelers at major hubs face hourslong waits and screeners work without pay.
The White House border czar, Tom Homan, said Customs and Immigration Enforcement officers could be assigned to cover exit lanes or verify passenger identification at airports with the longest lines, freeing TSA agents to work screening checkpoints. The plan remained in development as of Sunday, with Homan saying a deployment schedule would be finalized by the end of that day.
What the Left Is Saying
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York criticized the deployment plan, saying the last thing Americans need is untrained ICE agents deployed at airports. Jeffries referenced ongoing criticism of immigration officers' conduct during enforcement operations in Minnesota and other states. Democrats have demanded major changes to federal immigration agent practices as a condition for passing a funding bill to end the shutdown, and party leaders have shown no sign of backing down from those demands.
Senate Democrats have blocked a continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security, insisting on policy changes to immigration enforcement before approving any spending measure. The standoff has left hundreds of thousands of homeland security workers, including TSA officers, U.S. Secret Service agents and Coast Guard personnel, working without pay since Congress failed to renew DHS funding last month.
What the Right Is Saying
Trump defended the deployment in a social media post, saying ICE would be sent to airports to help TSA agents who have stayed on the job during the shutdown. The president criticized Democrats for not agreeing to a funding bill, framing the deployment as necessary to address traveler delays.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the uncertainty passengers face over wait times is exactly what Democrats want to exploit. 'Do I have to come an hour and a half early? Do I have to come four hours early?' Duffy said in a television interview. 'They don't know until the day of or the afternoon of their flight.' The secretary said the president wants to 'take away that leverage point for Democrats and make travel easier for the American people.'
Homan characterized meetings with bipartisan senators over the shutdown as 'good conversations' while noting they had not reached total agreement. The Senate was expected to advance the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to be Trump's next homeland security secretary, with a confirmation vote possible as early as late Monday.
What the Numbers Show
At Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, one of the nation's busiest hubs, security lines wrapped from one end of the airport to the other. The TSA reported wait times exceeding three hours at some large airports, prompting the deployment of additional personnel.
More than 800,000 homeland security workers have been working without pay during the partial shutdown. The Department of Homeland Security has not released official figures on exactly how many TSA screeners are affected, but the agency employs approximately 50,000 officers across the national airport system.
Homan said the initial deployment would prioritize 'large airports where there's a long wait, like three hours.' He noted that ICE agents are already assigned to many airports nationwide for criminal investigation work involving smuggling cases.
The Bottom Line
The deployment of immigration officers to airports represents an unusual use of federal law enforcement resources during a budget dispute. While Homan emphasized that ICE agents would not operate X-ray screening equipment, as they lack that training, the assignment of criminal investigators to perimeter security duties marks a notable shift in personnel allocation.
Travelers at airports including Atlanta and New York's JFK continued to face significant delays over the weekend, with some passengers reporting they arrived two and a half hours early for domestic flights. The Senate's expected confirmation of Markwayne Mullin as DHS secretary could provide new leadership for navigating the prolonged funding dispute, though Democrats have shown no inclination to compromise on their immigration policy demands.