On March 23, 2026, President Trump announced plans to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel to 14 airports across the country, including New Orleans, Houston, LaGuardia, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. As of March 23, 2026, ICE and DHS agents have already been seen in 13 airports across the country, including Chicago’s O’Hare, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Whether travelers are citizens, permanent residents, tourists, foreign national employees, or otherwise, this decision will affect anyone flying through an ICE-staffed airport by putting them in proximity to agents.

What’s Happening with TSA and the Partial Government Shutdown?: 

The DHS has been partially shut down since February 14, 2026, due to a lapse in funding. While three funding bills have been proposed since then, lawmakers have failed to reach an agreement on reforms to ICE and Border Patrol. Because the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is overseen by the DHS, lapsed funding for DHS also means lapsed funding for TSA. As a result, TSA agents were left without pay after March 13th. Airport wait times across the country have subsequently surged, with some reaching as high as six hours. TSA agents also went without pay during the 43-day government shutdown last Fall, with the promise of back pay. 

On March 15, 2026, the CEOs of the largest airlines—including Delta, American Airlines, and Southwest—wrote an open letter to Congress urging for the end of the shutdown or, at the very least, payment for TSA agents. President Trump announced the ICE deployment as a response in the hopes of easing the impact of the TSA shortage. 

What’s Behind the ICE-TSA Funding Discrepancy? 

Both TSA and ICE are nestled under the Department of Homeland Security, but only the latter is being paid. TSA is funded directly through the DHS budget, while ICE is funded and paid primarily through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which budgeted $75 billion to ICE over four years. According to DHS, 90 percent of its employees are considered essential, but are working without pay under the hope of federally-mandated back pay.

What Roles are ICE Agents Taking On at Airports?

The particular tasks and responsibilities of ICE agents depend heavily on what directives they receive from local TSA leadership. Tom Homan, the White House Border Czar, said that ICE’s function at airports is to take on non-screening security duties so that more TSA employees can be assigned to specialized security work; in this case, ICE’s tasks are limited to simpler activities, such as monitoring exits and crowd control, rather than X-ray bag checks. 

However, a statement by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and in-airport observations by travelers suggest that ICE may be taking on more specialized roles. For example, DHS confirmed that ICE agents will conduct ID screening at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after receiving training, and agents deployed to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport report that they have been conducting screening tasks since they arrived on March 23. This being said, not all airports will assign ICE to screening roles. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson stated that ICE will only serve in non-screening duties at Chicago O’Hare airport. 

This is not the first time that Trump has deployed ICE to tasks outside of border patrol and customs control. Most recently, the President authorized the deployment of ICE personnel as diplomatic security for Team USA during the 2026 Winter Olympics, which sparked protests in Italy. 

What Are the Core Arguments in Favor of ICE at Airports? 

President Trump has spoken publicly about his support for the deployment. On Truth Social, President Trump praised ICE, echoing Homan’s sentiment that ICE will do a “fantastic job” increasing national security at airports, given their security background. They emphasize that due combination of ICE at airports and backpay for TSA agents kicking in, airports across the country have reported a significant decrease in wait times. At Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, wait times were cut in half, and travelers reported feeling safe with ICE’s presence. Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) has also experienced a major time improvement since March 28. 

What Are the Main Concerns About Deploying ICE at Airports?

Some TSA Union leaders have said that ICE’s presence has not helped with lengthy security times. Another TSA officer from Atlanta said that officers and agents other than ICE, such as City of Atlanta staff, can perform roles just fine. 

Democrats are concerned that ICE agents are not trained enough to uphold airport security and may even escalate or aggravate situations. Representative Troy Carter of Louisiana, one of the 14 states that have received ICE agents in major airports, is concerned with ICE agents’ capability to operate and conduct security tasks in an airport-specific setting. He pointed out that ICE agents skirted the typical four-to-six-month TSA training period, beginning work after only two days of training. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut posted on X on March 22 that ICE’s presence will only be “disrupting checks, interrogating travelers, dragging parents from children, detaining citizens, brutalizing families, shooting & even killing,” based on ICE’s past track record of harm. 

Conclusion

After airports were slammed with long wait times at security and TSA agents increasingly quit or worked unpaid, President Trump deployed ICE agents to airports. The tasks and responsibilities of ICE agents depend on the training provided by the assigned airport. Until a compromise is struck with the DHS shutdown and TSA agents are paid, ICE will likely remain at airports for the time being. This deployment marks one of the many ways in which ICE’s purpose, abilities, and role in law enforcement have expanded under the Trump Administration.