ICE officers could stay at US airports after TSA workers get paychecks
ICE officers could stay at US airports after TSA workers get paychecks
Kate Perez, USA TODAY Sun, March 29, 2026 at 9:14 PM UTC
0
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers deployed across the country to assist the Transportation Security Administration amid a worker shortage may hold their positions a while longer, the White House's Border Czar Tom Homan told CNN.
TSA agents are set to receive paychecks later this week after over a month without pay during a partial government shutdown. Homan appeared on CNN's “State of the Union" on March 29 and said the security line pressure may alleviate slightly. He also said whether or not ICE officers leave airports depends on how many TSA officials return to work.
"I'm working very closely with the TSA administrator and the ICE director to decide what airport needs what, but you know, God bless men and women of ICE," Homan said. "They're plugging those holes, they're keeping the security at the airport at a high level."
President Donald Trump initially deployed ICE officers to airports across the U.S. on March 23, an effort to help alleviate wait times amid the TSA worker shortage and partial government shutdown. Lauren Bis, the Department of Homeland Security's acting assistant secretary for public affairs, confirmed late on March 25 that "after receiving standard TSA training curriculum, ICE officers are guarding entrances and exits, assisting with logistics, doing crowd control, and verifying identification using TSA equipment and standard operating procedures."
1 / 0ICE agents appear at airports as TSA delays snarl check-in
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrol at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, March 23, 2026. Hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were ordered to deploy to airports to help fill TSA staffing gaps across the country.
The latest TSA news: Here's what to know about TSA lines this weekend amid shutdown
ICE 'plugging the security holes,' Homan says
While the president has said ICE has made a "big difference," USA TODAY previously reported that airline travelers did not see officers assisting majorly at airports while they waited in long lines. Homan told CNN that lines have decreased at all places ICE officers have been sent while they are "protecting the exit lanes, doing identification checks, [and] plugging the security holes."
"We're not going to have an ICE officer looking at X-ray images, deciding what bags need to be secondary. That's a high level of training," Homan said. "But we can check IDs before they get to that machine, we can cover exits to make sure that people don't enter through the exit. That takes that TSA agent off that security line and (puts) him on the X-ray machine. We're plugging other security holes. We want to keep the airport safe, so we're doing the job TSA is asking us to do so their officers can get back to main screening."
Advertisement
'I am going to do it': Trump says he will pay TSA workers
Homan's comments come two days after Trump vowed to pay TSA workers and signed an order to redirect funds to pay personnel. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin began the process of paying TSA workers as soon as Trump signed the memo, and Homan told CNN on March 29 that TSA workers could see paychecks “hopefully by tomorrow or Tuesday."
Still, the larger DHS remains unfunded as Congress continues to struggle to make a bipartisan deal. While the House of Representatives passed a stopgap funding bill for the agency on March 27, it was largely along party lines, 213-203. The legislation is already "dead on arrival," without Democratic support, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, declared earlier in the day, meaning it has virtually no chance of becoming law because it doesn't have enough votes to pass in the Senate.
Beyond that, a scheduled break means the partial shutdown could continue into mid-April, with a two-week congressional recess for Easter and Passover beginning on March 27. Neither the House of Representatives and the Senate is set to return until April 13, outside of pro forma sessions, which are short meetings when business is not usually conducted.
Contributing: USA TODAY's Nathan Diller, Zachary Schermele, and Jeanine Santucci.
Kate Perez covers national trends and breaking news for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kperez@usatodayco.com or on X @katecperez_.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Border Czar Tom Homan says ICE may stay at airports after TSA funding
Source: “AOL Breaking”
