Border czar says decision on whether immigration agents leave airports depends on “how many TSA agents come back to work” at jobs they were not paid to do
WASHINGTON — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deployed to fourteen major airports during the ongoing DHS shutdown may remain stationed at security checkpoints even after Transportation Security Administration workers receive their overdue paychecks, White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed Sunday. Asked directly whether the ICE airport security deployment would end once TSA officers were paid, Homan told CNN: “We’ll see.”
The decision, Homan explained, would depend on how many TSA agents return to work at the positions they were unable to afford to commute to for six weeks.
ICE Airport Security: A Deployment Unlike Any Other
The ICE agents, who specialize in immigration enforcement and criminal investigation, were dispatched to airports last week to assist with crowd control and identification checks after TSA staffing shortages produced what officials described as unprecedented security delays. The agents are not trained in passenger screening. They do not know the layout of the airports to which they have been assigned. Union officials confirmed they cannot operate X-ray equipment or body scanners.
What they can do, Homan clarified, is guard exits.
“Certainly, a highly trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit and make sure people don’t go through those exits,” Homan told CNN, describing the reallocation of counternarcotics and deportation specialists to door-monitoring duty as an efficient use of federal resources.
At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, CNN observed three ICE agents checking passenger identification at security lines. The first time travelers encountered an actual TSA officer was at the metal detector. At Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, where wait times reached four hours before dawn, ICE agents were seen handing out bottles of water.
The Pay Structure
The ICE agents are being paid. They have been paid throughout the shutdown, funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the sweeping reconciliation package President Trump signed last summer. The legislation provided $75 billion to ICE and $64 billion to Customs and Border Protection. It did not provide funding for TSA.
TSA’s approximately 61,000 employees, classified as essential workers required to report to their posts during the shutdown, had not received a full paycheck since mid-February. More than 480 quit. Callout rates reached 42.3% at New Orleans, 41.5% at Atlanta, and 37.4% at JFK. At Baltimore-Washington International, where one-third of officers failed to report Saturday, security lines stretched outside the terminal building and into the cold.
Southwest Airlines employees at BWI attempted to boost morale by playing the Macarena and “Who Let the Dogs Out” on a large speaker inside the terminal.
On Monday, most TSA workers received partial retroactive paychecks after Trump issued a presidential memorandum directing DHS to use funds with “a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” from the reconciliation bill that did not include TSA operations. One TSA agent at Atlanta told Fox News his paycheck of $4,321 was still 30 hours short. Union officials reported incorrect overtime calculations and improper tax withholdings across multiple airports.
The Broader Staffing Solution
While awaiting ICE reinforcements, airports had already implemented emergency measures. Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental reassigned “hundreds of employees from across our organization, from finance to IT to maintenance and more, to help manage lines and assist travelers,” an airport spokesperson confirmed. Airports in New York and New Jersey deployed civilian police officers from the Port Authority, who also could not operate screening equipment.
Some passengers adapted to the new reality. Multiple travelers at LaGuardia reported arriving seven to eight hours before their scheduled departures. A passenger at BWI named Kevin told a local affiliate that “babies, the elderly, people in wheelchairs” were waiting outside in freezing temperatures.
A pilot and flight attendants on a Memphis-to-Atlanta flight were overheard by NBC News discussing the ICE airport security presence. “They’re not trained to have the patience we have in this business,” one crew member observed.
What Happens Next
The Senate departed Friday for a two-week recess without resolving the DHS funding impasse, now in its 45th day—the longest partial government shutdown in American history. The House passed a short-term funding measure that Senate Democratic leaders declared dead on arrival. Trump, who had previously rejected bipartisan funding proposals, blamed Democrats for the shutdown he described as “Democrat-caused” in his presidential memorandum ordering payment from funds Democrats did not appropriate for this purpose.
Meanwhile, DHS confirmed that TSA workers who called out during the weeks they were not being paid may now face disciplinary action for their absences.
Delta Air Lines has suspended its complimentary travel perk for members of Congress.
Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told a House committee last week that any officer hired today would not complete training in time for the World Cup, which begins in the United States in June. The agency has lost approximately 1,600 officers across two shutdowns in the past six months. Whether the ICE airport security arrangement persists through the tournament remained unclear.
Homan, who briefly visited Houston’s airport during the crisis, said wait times had been cut roughly in half since the ICE airport security operation began. He attributed the improvement to ICE’s presence rather than to the partial resumption of TSA paychecks, the end of peak spring break departures, or any other factor.
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