In brief
As airport security lines grow longer due to the ongoing partial government shutdown, President Trump's administration plans to send ICE agents to airports to support TSA staff. This decision has drawn criticism from unions representing TSA officers, who argue that the move could create safety issues and replaces trained professionals with untrained agents. The agents are expected to manage entry and exit points to allow TSA officers to focus on screenings, raising concerns about their experience in such roles.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be sent to airports to help with increasingly long lines at security checkpoints, the Trump administration has said.
President Donald Trump posted on social media that ICE agents will go to airports on Monday, while border tsar Tom Homan told CNN that his team was working out the details of the plan.
The union that represents the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers criticised the move, saying staff deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents.
Travellers have faced hours-long airport security queues in recent days as the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security continues.
The DHS has gone without funding since mid-February, after Congress failed to reach an agreement - leaving normal airport security staff without pay.
Trump posted on Truth Social: On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job. Trump's comments came a day after he threatened to send ICE agents to help TSA agents at airports if Democrats did not immediately agree to fund DHS.
I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before, Trump posted on Saturday.
The ICE agents will not be directly involved in screening passengers, Homan told CNN's State of the Union. Instead, they will be used to free up TSA agents to conduct the screenings they are trained to do, he said.
Homan suggested ICE agents would cover entry and exit points so that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines.
In a statement to CBS News, a DHS spokesperson said the president is using every tool available to help American travellers.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded to the announcement on Sunday, telling CNN the deployment of ICE agents is the last thing that the American people need.
Democrats have demanded reforms to ICE after federal agents were involved in violent incidents, raising concerns about the suitability of such an approach amidst a sensitive airport environment.
