Rewritten News Article: ICE Deployment to U.S. Airports Amid Government Shutdown Sparks Outrage From TSA Staff

Last Thursday, hours-long security lines snaked through terminals at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, but that wait was far from the worst across the country. Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport recorded wait times stretching to three and a half hours that same week. More than a month into a partial U.S. government shutdown that has left hundreds of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees working without pay, large numbers of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents have been calling out sick or leaving their posts entirely, sparking widespread travel chaos across the nation. The Trump administration’s solution to the crisis? Deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to fill staffing gaps.

ICE agents were sent to at least 14 major U.S. airports by Monday, with the stated goal of speeding up security checkpoints. Five days into the deployment, however, frontline airport workers say they are furious over the move. TSA officers speaking to WIRED confirm that ICE agents lack the required certification and specialized training to complete most tasks that would actually cut wait times at checkpoints. TSA staff say they are not just frustrated by the chaotic situation—they are also deeply worried about what the deployment signals for their long-term job security.

Observers have spotted ICE agents traveling in groups, patrolling security lines and baggage areas. They have been seen giving directions to lost passengers, handing out small water bottles to people waiting in lines, and far more often than not, standing idle with no clear work to complete. At New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday, passengers in a security line overheard one airline worker complain: “ICE are here and they’re doing literally nothing to help.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some stranded passengers saw ICE agents receiving on-site training to check passenger IDs and boarding passes. During a Wednesday hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, acting TSA head Ha Nguyen McNeill stated that “the travel document checker function is one of the nonspecialized screen functions of the TSA,” and confirmed ICE agents are being trained to conduct these checks.

TSA officers say ICE’s presence adds insult to injury for staff already working without pay—especially because ICE agents continue to receive their full, on-time salaries. “If you want to bring a tactical force into an environment where it's required to have customer service and a mindset where you know what you're doing, how to identify something that might be suspicious—they don't have that training,” says Hydrick Thomas, a security officer and the president of AFGE Local 2222, which covers New York and New Jersey airports.

Security officers say they feel deep concern for their colleagues, who have not received a steady paycheck for half of the fiscal year due to the shutdown. Agents are struggling to cover basic expenses: rent, mortgage payments, gas, and childcare. Food banks have organized donation drives at several airports, including hubs in Houston, North Carolina, and San Diego. In Knoxville, Tennessee, airport authorities accept donations for TSA staff at a Delta Airlines ticket counter. A federal official testified to Congress Wednesday morning that 11% of airport checkpoint employees called out sick on Tuesday, compared to just 4% before the shutdown began. Some major airports, including those in Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, and New York’s John F. Kennedy, have recorded daily callout rates higher than 35%. The TSA confirms more than 480 screeners have quit their jobs since the shutdown began in February.

Long term, security officers fear the federal government plans to permanently replace them with other federal agents (including ICE staff) or private sector employees. One officer referenced Project 2025, a blueprint for a second Trump administration published by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which advocates for fully privatizing the TSA.

“A part of the American dream that I was sold was that working for the government was honorable and stable,” said Carlos Rodriguez, a security officer and AFGE TSA Council 100 vice president representing Northeastern airports from New Jersey to Vermont. “But this is not honorable or stable at this moment.”

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that he would sign an executive order to pay TSA workers, but did not share details on how or when back pay would arrive in federal employees’ bank accounts.

“To have them come in …while officers are not receiving a paycheck, I feel like it’s a waste,” says Aaron Barker, an officer and president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 554, which represents airports in Georgia. “It’s a waste of money that could have been coming into officers’ bank accounts.” Barker added that his members have mostly seen ICE agents monitoring lines and directing foot traffic, tasks the Atlanta airport already assigns to non-TSA employees.

Tim Roberts, a spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, said in a written statement that “ICE agents are onsite to provide crowd management and support for our TSA partners.”

Neither TSA nor DHS responded to WIRED’s request for comment.

Flight attendants say the tension from the crisis is palpable even on board aircraft, says Paul Hartshorn Jr., a spokesperson for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents 28,000 American Airlines employees. “There are elevated stress levels right now,” Hartshorn says. “By the time passengers get to the aircraft door—they’re getting onto an aircraft that’s already tight to begin with. It’s an already confrontational situation made worse.” On Tuesday, the union released guidance for members interacting with ICE agents, and said the organization “has repeatedly raised concerns and sought clear, consistent guidance from [American Airlines] regarding these new situations.”

The White House has touted shorter lines as a win for ICE’s intervention. But security agents say any reduction in wait times stems from normal daily and weekly fluctuations in air traffic, and the unique staffing dynamics of individual airports, not the deployed ICE agents. “We’re coming to the end of spring break, so lines are not going to be as long coming out of Atlanta,” says Barker. Security officers also note higher callout rates in specific regions are most often tied to cost-of-living pressures: in larger, more expensive cities like Houston, for example, officers who commute long distances to the airport struggle disproportionately to afford gas for their trips to work. Officers added that differing absence policies across TSA units also contribute to varying callout rates across the country.