Trump deploying ICE to airports today, 3/23/26 to backfill for TSA. Completely outside of the ICE mission, scope and 'training'. Make no mistake, this is a step in normalizing ICE everywhere. I'll be flying Thursday and will post feedback on the circus. I have Pre-Check but will still get there early. Staff absences soar at some US airports as ICE agents prepare to screen travelers By David Shepardson, Jonathan Allen and Kristina Cooke March 22, 20267:10 AM CDTUpdated 3 hours ago TSA staff absences soar over the weekend, especially at some large airports DHS to send ICE agents to 14 airports amid staffing issues and funding impasse TSA union criticizes ICE deployment, cites lack of training and pay issues March 22 (Reuters) - Absences among transportation security workers this weekend reached their highest since a partial government shutdown began five weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security said on Sunday, while immigration enforcement agents prepared to fill in for them at some of the busiest U.S. airports. At airports in Houston, New York and Atlanta, more than one-third of Transportation Security Administration staff were calling in sick or otherwise absent, DHS said, as the shutdown left tens of thousands working without pay while congressional Democrats and Republicans argue over the DHS budget. To help fill the staffing gaps, hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will deploy to airports starting on Monday, government officials have said. DHS said on Sunday it would not publicly share details about the ICE deployment, in order to preserve operational security, but sources briefed on the matter said the current plan calls for deploying ICE agents to 14 locations, although that figure may change. For now, ICE personnel will not be deployed in areas behind airport security checkpoints because they lack the specific clearance needed, the sources said. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement his office has been informed that ICE agents on Monday would be sent to Hartsfield-Jackson, the busiest U.S. airport in passenger numbers. Federal officials indicated that the ICE deployment would support TSA in crowd control and managing security lines in domestic terminals, and is "not intended to conduct immigration enforcement activities," Dickens said. That contradicts a social media post by Trump on Saturday that ICE agents' activities would include "the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country," particularly Somalis, a group that his administration has accused, without evidence, of widespread fraud and corruption. WORKERS WITHOUT PAY FOR WEEKS Democrats have held up funding for DHS while demanding a change in rules governing its immigration operations, which have killed U.S. citizens and sparked public outrage. Overall, more than 9% of TSA employees have been absent from work over the past seven days, leading to lengthy lines for passengers trying to get to their gates, according to DHS. "Many TSA officers cannot pay their rent, buy food, or afford to put gas in their cars — forcing them to call out sick from work," a DHS spokesperson said on Sunday. Travellers wait in Transportation Security Administration screening lines at the San Antonio International Airport in San Antonio, Texas, U.S., March 14, 2026. REUTERS/Kaylee Greenlee/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Hundreds of TSA agents forced to work without pay have also simply resigned, according to their labor union and TSA. Border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday that sending out immigration agents to bolster short-staffed TSA teams will speed up airport lines, but the union for TSA workers said that does not solve what they see as the underlying problem of pay. "When we deploy tomorrow, we'll have a well thought-out plan to execute," Homan said on CNN's "State of the Union" program. "ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!" Trump wrote in a Sunday morning social media post. Details of how ICE agents would help with the lines were scant, although Homan told CNN a plan would be in place by the end of the day "to move those lines along." Homan and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, in separate interviews, had different ideas about how the ICE agents might be deployed. Homan said he doubted ICE agents would operate X-ray baggage and passenger screening machines because they did not have experience. Duffy, in contrast, said ICE agents "know how to pat people down, they know how to run the X-ray machines." TSA WORKERS' UNION OBJECTS TO REPLACEMENT PLAN The labor union representing TSA workers criticized Trump's decision, saying their members spend months in training learning to detect explosives and weapons. "Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe," Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement. "They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be." Unlike TSA employees, ICE agents have continued to get paid by the government through a separate funding provision while lawmakers debate whether ICE funding should be tied to new rules and procedures. Democrats have said new rules are needed after masked ICE agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in the streets of Minneapolis earlier this year. The two had come out to protest or observe Trump's unprecedented deportation surge in Minnesota. Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat and the minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, told CNN that his caucus is open to a separate funding agreement for TSA employees while lawmakers debate measures to "get ICE under control." But there has been little movement on an actual deal so far, especially in the Senate.
What's next? Maybe Trump can send them to do landscaping and security at his golf courses. Alternately send them over to fight in Iran. They want to think of themselves as trained soldiers. They could soften up the Iranians by causing the Iranians to expend ammunition before the regular army goes in.
Pros: Get ICE out of the USA, expose them for the fraudulent cowards they are Cons: They get actual combat experience, their pay is far higher than a regular soldier's.
Part of the problem with the early proto-Nazis was they were all basically Peaky Blinders type WWI vets who gave no F's and were used to practical brutality. Its like an incomplete schedule of antibiotics. You'll kill the weakest 99% of the germs by sending them to war, but the 1% that remains will be super virulent.
You said a mouthful. Post WWI Germany vets. I have no idea what percentage of ICE are vets but every vet I know hates Trump and has nothing but disdain for ICE.
I agree with and 100% support sending every single ICE agent to Iran on the front lines let them put all that cosplaying to good use let them really earn their $10k bonus
If they are really just there to help TSA agents why TF are they showing up in their military cosplay uniform with bullet proof vests, etc? That alone tells you what the mission here is. This is also one of the most politically stupid things Trump can do while his polling on immigration continues to crater. Creating chaos, and driving down the demand to travel knowing you'll be harassed and intimidated by thugs at the airport is really a stroke of idiocy. if Trump cared about pulling his number up on immigration, and looking to be solving the TSA problem he'd order ICE agents to wear the same type of uniform that TSA agents have, but instead just wear a different colored shirt.
I don't think Trump cares anymore. He is just going to stage a better organized coup the next election.
To be fair, they are only trained to terrorize the people that look like immigrants, not to operate a computer system, check your passport, or make sure you put your backpack in a carrier.
On paper using the military and/or paramilitary to backfill for TSA during govt shutdowns seems workable. TSA is braindead bullshit security theater anyway, so as long as the trains run on time, whatever.
If Democrats would behave, we would probably need 1/3rd of the police force and wouldn't need ICE at all... Taxpaying Americans pay a very steep price for society's most difficult people...
You know what is also workable on paper? *Agreeing to the clean TSA/Coast Guard etc funding bill that Senare Republicans agreed to *Transferring other funds from other sources (quasi legal depending but obviously within the risk tolerance of the criminal pedo cabal in power) *Not implementing illegal policy ideas by tweet that you heard from a radio call in show Like, yes, we could*theoretically* use the masked Gestapo to, I don't know, fill critical shortages in the Home Health Care worker market caused by ICE terror campaign, or to fight wildfires exacerbated by mindless DOGE cuts, or to reopen the Strait of Hormuz Or we could just not have a secret police and an airport security line that is tolerable
