Updated March 22, 2026, 2:33 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be sent to airports to assist understaffed Transportation Security Administration employees starting March 23 amid the ongoing partial government shutdown.
The announcement comes a day after the president first threatened to deploy the federal immigration enforcement agency to address the growing crisis, which was sparked by the funding fight in Congress and exacerbated by an influx of spring break travelers.
“On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job despite the fact that the Radical Left Democrats, who are only focused on protecting hard line criminals who have entered our Country illegally, are endangering the USA by holding back the money that was long ago agreed to with signed and sealed contracts, and all,” Trump wrote in a social media post on March 22.
Trump said White House border czar Tom Homan will be in charge of the operation.
In comments a day prior, the president said he would also have the ICE agents arrest people who have entered the United States without authorization, especially those coming from Somalia − a country he has repeatedly criticized. It’s not clear if the March 23 deployment will only see ICE assisting TSA agents in their prescribed duties, or if their mandate will also include immigration enforcement at airports.
Customs and Border Protection agents primarily manage immigration control at airports.
In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” on March 22, Homan said ICE agents won’t be manning X-ray machines, but they’ll help with other work.
“There are roles we can play to release TSA officers from the non-significant roles, such as guarding an exit so they can get back to the scanning machines and move people quicker,” Homan said. “We’re just simply helping our fellow officers at TSA.”
Homan said ICE will continue immigration enforcement operations while aiding TSA.
Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries slammed the move in an interview shortly after Homan’s appearance on CNN, telling host Dana Bash that the deployment of ICE agents would risk lives.
“The last thing that the American people need are for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports all across the country, potentially to brutalize or in some instances kill them,” the House minority leader said.
“We’ve already seen how ICE conducts itself,” Jeffries added, appearing to reference the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal agents in Minneapolis during the administration’s deportation crackdown in the Twin Cities.
Travelers have recently seen longer wait times at airports across the country, especially at security screenings, due to a shortage in TSA workers. In the past month, about 50,000 TSA airport security employees have been forced to work without pay as a result of the partial government shutdown.
The shutdown began after Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security until the agency, which includes both TSA and ICE, changed its immigration policies in the wake of the violent enforcement efforts in Minnesota. Republicans have rejected offers from Democrats to pass funding only for the non-immigration enforcement parts of DHS, including TSA.
It’s not yet clear which airports ICE agents will deploy to and how many agents will be involved. Homan called the operation a “work in progress” on CNN but expects a plan by the end of the day on March 22. He added that ICE should prioritize airports with the “longest waits” impacting travelers.
Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her atkapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletterhere.
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