Travelers wait in line at a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Ilya Nouberge | Bloomberg | Getty Images
White House Border Security Director Tom Homan said Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be sent to airports on Monday to help ease security lines due to the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to send ICE agents to airports as the shutdown enters its second month, causing headaches for travelers passing through hours-long Transportation Security Administration security lines.
Homan appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and confirmed that ICE would be deployed on Monday.
“We’ll be at the airport tomorrow to help TSA move forward on these routes,” Homan said, adding that ICE will assist in areas such as exit door security to relieve TSA personnel to screen travelers. “We are simply there to assist with work in areas that do not require TSA expertise.”
Homan said the details of the plan are still being discussed but will be finalized by Monday morning, when ICE officers will be on the scene.
“By the end of today, we’ll have a plan in place about which airport to take it from and where to send it to,” Homan said. “It’s a work in progress.”
The move to introduce ICE comes as the DHS shutdown, which began on February 14, has strained airport staff. Many TSA employees have spoken out or quit altogether rather than work without pay. More than 400 TSA employees have quit their jobs since the start of the lockdown, NBC News reported.
Everett Kelly, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, condemned the move.
“ICE officers are not trained or certified in aviation security,” Kelly said in a statement. “TSA officers spend months learning how to detect explosives, weapons, and threats specifically designed to evade detection at checkpoints. These skills require specialized instruction, on-the-job training, and ongoing recertification. They cannot be improvised.”
He added: “Putting untrained personnel at security checkpoints does not fill a gap; it creates a gap.”
Kelly called on Congress to “stop playing politics and get to work” to fund the TSA.
Democrats are demanding changes to immigration enforcement practices in exchange for funding for DHS after two Americans were shot and killed by ICE in Minneapolis.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York denounced plans to deploy ICE agents to airports.
“The last thing Americans want is to see untrained ICE agents deployed to airports across the country, and in some cases brutalized and even killed,” Jeffries said on CNN.
But Jeffries suggested Democrats would not back away from their demands in exchange for funding for DHS.
“It is unfortunate that Republicans decided that rather than bring ICE agents under control, they would rather force TSA agents to work without pay, inconvenience millions of Americans across the country, and expose them to untrained ICE agents who could cause chaos at airports across the country,” Jeffries said. “Our view is that they need to be reined in, and that we shouldn’t put a single penny of our tax dollars into them until we make bold, dramatic and meaningful changes.”
Democratic leaders also proposed funding the TSA and all other DHS agencies except ICE and Customs and Border Protection. Democrats have tried to advance such legislation several times, but Republicans have blocked its passage for fear of losing their influence to ultimately fund ICE and CBP.
Some Republican lawmakers favor the idea of separating ICE and CBP funding from the rest of DHS, including the TSA, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who heads the Senate Commerce Committee, suggested the idea in an interview with The Hill on Saturday. Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) also brought up the idea in an interview on C-SPAN about “ceasefire.” Messrs. Kennedy and Cruz said Republicans would try to pass funding for ICE through the reconciliation process, which would require only 50 votes in the Senate.
“Let’s keep everything open except ICE,” Kennedy said. “But what I can tell you is what’s going to happen next is that Republicans will consider a reconciliation bill that would require only Republican votes to fund ICE.”
