ICE agents moving into airports
ICE officers were deployed to U.S. airports to assist TSA amid mounting processing delays, increasing enforcement touchpoints for noncitizens during domestic and international travel. (wusf.org)
President Trump posted on Truth Social on March 21 that he would “move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports” and told agents to “GET READY,” adding the deployment would include “the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country.” (politico.com (politico.com)) White House border czar Tom Homan said on March 22 that ICE agents would deploy on Monday, March 23, and described assignments such as guarding exit doors to the secure side of terminals to free TSA officers for screening. (cnbc.com (cnbc.com)) Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens confirmed federal immigration and Homeland Security agents would be at Hartsfield‑Jackson beginning Monday morning and said federal officials indicated the deployment “is not intended to conduct immigration enforcement activities.” (atlantaga.gov (atlantaga.gov)) The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA officers, said on March 22 that “ICE agents are not trained or certified in aviation security” and noted more than 50,000 TSA employees had been working without pay for over five weeks. (afge.org (afge.org)) CBS reported ICE and DHS officials were “scrambling” to implement the president’s directive, and that Saturday saw more than 3,250 TSA call‑outs while DHS said more than 400 TSA officers had “separated” from the agency since the funding lapse began. (cbsnews.com (cbsnews.com)) CBS also recorded officials saying ICE would likely be used for “site security” and crowd management and quoted a former senior ICE official saying ICE agents probably would not be equipped or trained to perform technical screening tasks, such as operating checkpoint machines. (cbsnews.com (cbsnews.com))
