U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents deployed at national airports since March 23 have reportedly started conducting security measures including ID checks.
ICE agents began appearing at more than a dozen airports on Monday, in an attempt to provide additional resources and security due to the ongoing partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) due to a lack of funding that has diminished the presence of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials. Long lines around the country remain ongoing as a political squabble endures in Washington, hitting the 40-day mark without a deal in place.
ICE agents have reportedly begun checking IDs at least at three airports—Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, LaGuardia Airport in New York, and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport—according to the New York Times, with reporting confirmed by DHS.
“After receiving standard TSA training curriculum,” ICE officers were “verifying identification using TSA equipment and standard operating procedures,” the agency’s acting assistant secretary, Lauren Bis, said in a statement. Officers’ duties have also included guarding entrances and exits, in addition to crowd control, she added.
Military.com reached out to DHS for comment on ICE agents’ roles in assisting TSA and whether they have been performing duties outside of their traditional purview or training.
ICE agents in Atlanta were spotted instructing travelers to insert their IDs into card readers, according to the Times, including verifying identities on a computer screen and waving people toward scanning equipment as TSA officers nearby seemed to guide them.
In Phoenix, armed ICE agents wearing ballistic vests checked IDs, looked at travelers’ documents and helped manage the flow of baggage on security conveyor belts. One traveler at LaGuardia said that an ICE agent checked his ID when he went through the TSA PreCheck line.
It remains unclear whether ICE agents have also been assisting in security-related measures at other airports.
There have been at least 15 airports so far to have ICE agents, according to sources including the Associated Press and CNN:
- George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
- John F Kennedy International Airport in New York.
- Louis Armstrong International Airport near New Orleans.
- Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
- Chicago-O’Hare International Airport.
- Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
- Houston’s William P Hobby Airport.
- LaGuardia Airport (New York).
- Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (San Juan, Puerto Rico).
- Philadelphia International Airport.
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
- Pittsburgh International Airport.
- Southwest Florida International Airport (Fort Myers, Florida).
Trump Calls ICE Agents 'Patriots'
The presence of ICE agents at these various airports starting this week has been praised by President Donald Trump, who painted a picture of the agents being congenial towards civilians.
“I am so proud of our ICE Patriots!” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. “They were unfairly maligned by the Lunatic Democrats for years, and now, at the Airports, in addition to what they are supposed to be doing, they are helping people with bags, even picking up and cleaning areas.”
Trump administration officials initially offered mixed messages on how ICE agents could assist TSA.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said ICE is capable of stepping in and performing roles similar to TSA, saying Sunday on ABC’s This Week that they “know how to run the X-ray machines” and “run those same type of security machines at the southern border.”
That same day, border czar Tom Homan said the opposite on CNN’s State of the Union.
“I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine because they’re not trained in that,” Homan said, instead alluding to their presence as aiding in “areas that don’t need their specialized expertise.”
Ha Nguyen McNeill testified Wednesday in front of the House Homeland Security Committee on the ongoing shutdown, saying record-high wait times in TSA's 24-year history could get worse. Some wait times have surpassed four hours while 40-50% of TSA employees at certain airports have called out of work altogether.
"This level of disruption is unprecedented, and unacceptable, and significantly undermines the security of U.S. transportation systems," McNeill said.
On his War Room podcast on Monday, ex-White House senior adviser Steve Bannon said: “We can use this as a test run, as a test case, to really perfect ICE’s involvement in the 2026 midterms."
Pushback at Some Airports
Agents’ presence has facilitated some blowback in certain pockets of the country.
Demonstrators stood outside Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on Wednesday, protesting ICE agents’ presence, according to local FOX 8. Local police had urged travelers to arrive early due to longer-than-average TSA lines and traffic outside the facility.
In Philadelphia, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, appeared at the airport earlier this week warning ICE agents not to overstep their authority.
"If you commit crimes in this jurisdiction, which is the city and county of Philadelphia, I prosecute you. That is how it works," Krasner said, according to local 6 ABC . "The president cannot pardon you."
San Diego City Councilmember and San Diego International Airport Authority board member Marni von Wilpert said ICE agents’ presence will make travelers “less safe.”
“ICE has already shown it refuses to follow the law and respect our communities, so I’m deeply concerned about what this deployment will mean for San Diego travelers and the thousands of workers at San Diego International Airport,” von Wilpert said in a statement shared with Military.com.
“Our TSA agents are highly trained in aviation safety and security. Dropping ICE agents into airports to do jobs they’re not trained for is a recipe for disaster, fear and more chaos,” she added.
Getting Americans 'Used To' Broader Security Presence
Jill Garvey, co-director and co-founder of States at the Core, told Military.com that the Trump administration has used the partial DHS shutdown as impetus to deploy ICE agents.
“We sort of saw this as the administration taking advantage of sort of the strain on TSA and the long wait lines at airports to make essentially a political move,” Garvey said, describing it as a movement from occupying certain neighborhoods to purposefully creating an oppressive environment.
States at the Core is an organization that started in October 2024 to combat authoritarianism in the United States and support local, state and federal workers in efforts to combat it.
Garvey also took umbrage with the messaging coming out of the administration regarding agents’ roles, with the dichotomy in explanations between officials like Duffy and Homan. ICE agents don’t have the expertise as TSA workers, she said.
She described the latest efforts not only as “intimidation” but aimed to gin up Americans and get them used to something that would traditionally be found in conflict or military zones.
“If you've traveled through airports and places that are sort of more autocratic, there's militarized forces or police and a lot of transportation hubs, heavily armed, sort of intimidating figures,” Garvey said. “There's an overwhelming militarized presence in these places.
“I suspect that's what the administration is going for, to just get people really used to having this federal law enforcement present in their everyday lives.”
