ICE agents will be deployed to U.S. airports on Monday, White House says
ICE agents will be deployed to U.S. airports on Monday, White House says
Jack BrewsterSun, March 22, 2026 at 4:39 PM UTC
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ICE agents will be deployed to U.S. airports on Monday, White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed Sunday.
"We will be at the airports tomorrow, helping TSA move those lines along," Homan said on CNN's State of the Union. He said ICE would handle tasks like guarding exit doors to free up TSA agents for passenger screening. "We'll have a plan by the end of today, what airports we're starting with and where we're sending them."
In another interview on Fox News, Homan added: “All of these federal employees are working for free, and it's like the 3rd time they went without pay and the president is tired of it. He's not going to let the American people be held hostage by this foolish shutdown that the Democrats started.”
The DHS shutdown began Feb. 14 after Democrats blocked a Republican spending bill, refusing to fund ICE without new restrictions on agents' conduct. Democrats have demanded officers show identification, obtain warrants for home arrests and follow stricter use-of-force rules — changes prompted by the fatal shootings of two American citizens by ICE agents in Minneapolis in January. Republicans have rejected most of those demands and blamed Democrats for the impact on airport security.
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted the White House’s plan on CNN's State of the Union. "The last thing the American people need is for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports across the country potentially to brutalize or to kill them," he said.
President Trump had previously announced the move on social media Saturday, framing it as a threat to Democrats. "If the Radical Left Democrats don't immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again," Trump wrote, "I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before."
The TSA has been bleeding staff since the DHS shutdown began on Feb. 14. More than 400 officers have quit, according to DHS, and 10% of the 50,000-strong workforce didn't show up for work on Tuesday, ABC News reported.
Security lines have topped three hours at some airports. Acting Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl told Fox News on March 17 it was "not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports" if staffing keeps falling.
TSA agents have been working without pay for more than five weeks. Elon Musk on Saturday said he would personally fund their paychecks, but the White House has not said whether that's legally possible.
Source: “AOL General News”
