Trump Deploys ICE to Airports as TSA Staffing Crisis Deepens

About 50,000 TSA airport security employees have been forced to work without pay during the partial government shutdown, and security lines at major U.S. airports have stretched past three hours. President Trump's answer: send in ICE.

Trump announced Sunday via social media that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would be deployed to airports beginning Monday, placing border czar Tom Homan in charge of the effort. "On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job despite the fact that the Radical Left Democrats, who are only focused on protecting hard line criminals who have entered our Country illegally, are endangering the USA by holding back the money that was long ago agreed to with signed and sealed contracts, and all," Trump posted.

Homan, appearing on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, cast the operation primarily as support for strained airport security. He said ICE agents would assist with security at entrances and exits to ease TSA's workload and would release TSA officers from "non-significant roles," freeing them to focus on screening. Trump, however, had also promised the agents would "do security like no one has ever seen before," including "the immediate arrest of all illegal immigrants who have come into our Country."

The gap between those two framings remained unresolved Sunday. The administration has not detailed whether ICE agents will perform screening tasks, operate TSA equipment, or hold any formal legal authority to conduct the security functions typically assigned to TSA by statute.

The deployment comes after DHS has gone without new funding for roughly five weeks. The shutdown, according to USA Today, began after Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security until it changed immigration enforcement policies following a violent crackdown in Minnesota. Republicans, in turn, rejected Democratic offers to pass funding only for non-immigration enforcement portions of DHS, including TSA. CNN reported there are few signs the impasse will break before Friday, the next payday for TSA workers, and before a scheduled congressional recess.

The human cost is visible at airports across the country. CNN cameras showed security lines at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport stretching all the way to the parking garage Sunday morning. Traveler Karim Pine said he had already waited more than two hours and was told to expect another 40 minutes. Fox News identified Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Philadelphia as among the hardest-hit airports, with some wait times exceeding three hours.

Travelers in Philadelphia expressed unease about the deployment. "We're in a very high alert right now, so if we don't have fully trained people, I truly feel like there may be some breaches in security," said Lamar Weaver, whose godmother works for TSA.

Communities have begun filling gaps the government has not. Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina organized a gift card donation drive for TSA workers, accepting grocery and gas cards near the security checkpoint. Elon Musk offered on X to pay TSA salaries outright, writing that the funding impasse was "negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country."

The next test of whether the political standoff breaks comes Friday, when TSA workers face another missed paycheck and Congress prepares to leave Washington.