Travelers wait in line at a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Elijah Nouvelage | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will deploy to airports on Monday to help ease security lines amid the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Border Czar Tom Homan said.
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to deploy ICE agents to airports as the shutdown drags into its second month and creates headaches for travelers moving through hours-long security lines.
Homan confirmed that ICE will be deployed on Monday during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“We will be at the airports tomorrow, helping TSA move those lines along,” Homan said, adding that ICE will assist in areas like guarding exit doors to relieve TSA agents for screening travelers. “We’re simply there to help TSA do their jobs in areas that don’t need their specialized expertise.”
The move to deploy ICE comes as the DHS shutdown, which began on Feb. 14, strains airport workers. Many TSA agents have either called out rather than work without pay or quit altogether. More than 400 TSA officers have left their jobs since the start of the shutdown, according to an NBC News report.
Democrats are demanding statutory changes to immigration enforcement practices in exchange for funding DHS after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by ICE in Minneapolis.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York slammed the plan to deploy ICE agents to airports.
“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,” Jeffries said on CNN.
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