Hundreds of ICE agents have been sent to 14 U.S. airports to assist with crowd control and non-security tasks as a TSA staffing crisis, fueled by a government shutdown and pay disputes, causes significant travel delays.
As a partial government shutdown enters its second month, hundreds of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to 14 major airports, including New York’s JFK and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, to mitigate massive security delays caused by thousands of TSA employees failing to report for work without pay.
While Acting Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl told Fox News that agents would serve as a “force multiplier” in “non-specialized security functions,” President Donald Trump confirmed he requested that agents remove their face masks because he “didn’t think it was an appropriate look for an airport,” while simultaneously noting that the deployment provides “fertile territory” for potential arrests of undocumented immigrants. With TSA absenteeism hitting over 40% in cities like New Orleans and Atlanta, and Democrats refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security without ICE reforms following a fatal shooting in Minneapolis, travelers are being warned of four-hour wait times as the funding standoff remains deadlocked ahead of a scheduled congressional recess.
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