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President Donald Trump ordered on Monday the deployment of agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 14 airports across the United States to compensate for the lack of personnel from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), amid the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has been ongoing since February 14.
Absenteeism at the TSA reached critical levels this past Saturday. More than 11.5% of its national workforce called in sick, with rates between 30% and 40% at key airports such as Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, and New York's JFK, resulting in lines of up to four hours at the terminals.
The airports where ICE agents were deployed include Chicago O'Hare, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, JFK, LaGuardia, Newark Liberty, Philadelphia, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Houston Hobby, Houston Bush Intercontinental, New Orleans Louis Armstrong, Pittsburgh, Fort Myers Southwest Florida International, Cleveland Hopkins, and Luis Muñoz Marín in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The "border czar" Tom Homan confirmed on Sunday in CNN that ICE agents will assist with line control, management of entries and exits, and identification verification before the security areas, but they will not operate X-ray machines or take on specialized TSA functions. Homan coordinated the deployment with the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, and the acting administrator of TSA, Ha Nguyen McNeill.
Trump attributed the initiative to himself, comparing it to the invention of the paperclip. "Do you know the story of the paperclip? 182 years ago, a man discovered the paperclip. It was so simple, and everyone who saw it said, 'Why didn't I think of that?' ICE was my idea," he stated in response to CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins. However, according to CNN, the proposal originated from a radio listener named 'Linda from Arizona' on the show 'The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show' on Friday, March 20, and was amplified by Clay Travis that same night on Fox News before Trump's announcement.
The official also warned that if ICE is not sufficient to cover the airports, he would turn to the National Guard. "I want to thank ICE because they responded strongly. They will do well. And if it's not enough, I will deploy the National Guard. We will not allow the Democrats to destroy our country," he stated.
The measure generated immediate criticism. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the deployment as "completely wrong," while the ACLU condemned the use of ICE agents in airport security lines for lacking the proper training for such duties.
The partial shutdown of the DHS, which arose from the standoff between Trump and the Democrats, has now lasted more than five weeks without any signs of resolution, affecting multiple federal agencies and generating increasing pressure on the air transport security infrastructure nationwide.
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