With ICE personnel deployed to airports amidst a record TSA security lines during the partial government shutdown, the Trump administration has said that these agents wouldn’t be deployed behind checkpoints because they lacked the needed clearance.
The TSA’s acting chief told Congress on Wednesday that ICE was being used for “nonspecialized” tasks like line management, checking travel documents, and telling passengers how to load bins.
Unmasked ICE ERO officers deployed to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport were seen handing out bottled water to travelers waiting in TSA lines that stretched as long as four hours on Wednesday. The scene marked the third straight day immigration agents have been sent… pic.twitter.com/LBXfSwVswG
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 25, 2026
However, aviation watchdog JonNYC reports that requirements to allow ICE agents to go behind security are being waived by the Secretary of Transportation.
Seems like a bad idea to me:
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has issued an airport Security Directive that exempts all
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from needing a Security Identification Display Area (SIDA) badge to enter the sterile…— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) March 26, 2026
These badges are for airport and airline employees, vendors, tenants, contractors, and similar workers.
Employers sponsor them, and then badge candidates need to provide two IDs, fingerprints, go through a TSA security threat assessment, a criminal background check, and receive training before being allowed unescorted access. TSA checks databases including terrorist watch lists, lawful status information, and identity.
The badging process normally takes 1-2 weeks, and applicants have to take a class and pass an exam. Batch of a larger than usual number of people could take longer.
They’re skipping this. The President expects the whole thing to be over soon and that was a stated reason for rejecting Elon Musk’s offer to pay TSA screeners as a stop gap. So presumably they don’t see much point in burdening TSA with screening these ICE employees that have been sent to airports for access.
What’s concerning, aside from giving access to people without the usual screening process (assuming that if they’re with ICE they’re fine) is that each airport is required to have a challenge program for people with authorized unescorted access in secured areas.
- SIDA-badged individuals are supposed to challenge people they see with access whose credentials aren’t displayed, or notify the proper authority.
- Airports often go further in local badge rules. Atlanta, for instance, requires badge display in secure and sterile areas and challenge/reporting of all non-displaying persons.
- If ICE officers are in those areas without a visible credential, that undermines the challenge culture that’s supposed to be part of security. A badge holder is supposed to question or report unbadged people. Instead the instruction will be ‘ignore those armed people’ there’s no longer a simple challenge rubric, and unbadged access without going through security becomes normalized. You create confusion over who can escort, who has local access authority at doors, and how airport police are supposed to distinguish a legitimate federal exception from an impostor.
If the partial government shutdown doesn’t end soon we could see lines get much worse (and the Transportation Secretary has warned of shutting down some small airports entirely) because more screeners become likely to call out as they seek work elsewhere rather than show up for deferred pay – which doesn’t cover immediate needs like rent and groceries.
Allowing ICE agents behind security checkpoints without screening or badging does not permit them to perform screening functions. They still aren’t trained in that (the statute specifies minimum 40 hours of training, and TSA academies aren’t set up to do this quickly at scale).
In the meantime it doesn’t seem like a good idea to skip over the checks that are normally required for secure access at the airport without security screening, and without credentials that other employees are trained to challenge for.
This is probably only jarring for multilingual folks like me, but SIDA is the acronym for AIDS in French and some other languages.
Unrelated to this article-but I could not find a link for contact us. This article is something that Gary should do an article on so people know their ‘flight’ could end up being a bus! https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2026/03/26/american-airlines-flight-bus-ride/
Totally disagree with this synopsis, ICE agents are already on the job….the sky hasn’t fallen, no planes have been hijacked and the lines are getting shorter…..good job President Trump !!
What do you think they did after 9/11 with the NG?
Thanks Hillary O’Biden… /s
But, are they wearing a suit?
I went through security this morning. Thanked all of the TSA agents and I was looking for ICE as well and would have thanked them too. Did not see any. Now if I would have seen Schumer, I would have probably been thrown in jail.
Mission creep. Does anyone seriously think they’ll completely leave airports when this is all over?
Why would anyone have a problem with ICE if they are at airports. If they are removing bad folks there or anywhere else, who cares. Let them do their jobs. Not all of us want to defund the police and defund ICE.
@Coffee Please — The only thing they’re removing are… deez nutz!
“In the meantime it doesn’t seem like a good idea to skip over the checks that are normally required for secure access at the airport without security screening, and without credentials…”
You’re kidding right? If you’re carrying a weapon for living via a federal law enforcement agency, you have gone through far more thorough “background checks” than a blueberry TSA would ever go through. We’re taking secret or even top secret clearance level, via polygraphs. But you trust the Blue Shirts after going through a “week long” process with a class and a test. I’ll tell you the test is less than 90 minutes and if TSA can pass, a 6th grader can pass the test with the unlimited attempts they have. Also, the class is not mandatory, you can take the test and receive an ID in 20 minutes after completing the exam. Let’s not forget the 3 strike rule when it came to failing drug tests with the Blue Shirts, so clearly we’re looking at the most reliable and trustworthy workforce out there.
Sometimes these posts are just laughable, with their “insider knowledge”. Let’s say there’s an active incident at the airport on the secure side, when local SWAT shows up, are they going to display SiDA badges and ask to come in? Nope, they will go handle the issue. And I’m pretty sure the blue shirts aren’t challenging them either.
Of course the Democrats are mad about ICE, they are removing part of their voter base. Schumer and Booker have admited as much.
Schumer and Booker represent the defund movement. First there was defund the police. Now we have defund ICE. Is this the modern day Democrat Party? No police, no border security, no ID’s?
Of course Trumpbots like Michael M. worship ICE, they even claim that Jan 6th was peaceful
@Coffee Please – 100% accurate. If the Democrats block the SAVE act and maintain mail in voting, we should allow mail in gun purchases also.
@Gary – ICA agents are Federal Law Enforcement Officers, and those are already allowed to fly armed (provided their agency allows it). They don’t need to be escorted or have SIDA badges to do it. Countless FBI, DEA, DSS, ATF and other agents fly armed every day, so this is really a nonissue.
@Doug – two separate issues
@Doug
You are correct. Of course folks like Jeffries, Schumer, Booker, Murphy, etc would love to make an issue of this but they can’t. I just arrived at my destination and will thank ICE folks if I see them.
I would hope that the bar for being appointed an ICE agent/officer (or any armed member of law enforcement) is higher than the requirements for obtaining a SIDA badge. The average 8-year-old should be able to pass the ‘class’ and ‘exam’ which is now often (if not exclusively) given on a computer. The process takes 1-2 weeks under most circumstances due to the time it takes to run background checks and fingerprints for someone who is not already cleared. This is probably only a thing due to certain airport authorities refusing to issue SIDA badges to ICE or dragging out the process.
You’re concerned about a background check for a SIDA badge? Federal LEOs can already fly armed on commercial aircraft 24/7.
I agree with others. Why would you ever think a SIDA badge background check would be more detailed or gather more info about a person who is an active DHS employee that is tasked with guarding the national security of our country?
Kind of amusing aa illegals were waived of government ID requirements by the Biden Democrats to travel by plane all over the nation. Illegals even got their own private lines Covid vaccinated or not to go through TSA security in case anyone remembers! Democrats are scum for forcing our TSA to work unpaid. Never forget.
Seems like all those ID requirements would unnecessarily burden married women and people of color trying to work for TSA. And also people like Bernie Sanders and Gavin Newsom who have absolutely no idea how to get a copy of their birth certificate.