ICE Deployed To 13 Airports — But Agents Are Mostly Standing Around As TSA Lines Stretch For Hours

by Gary Leff

ICE has deployed to 13 airports nationwide, ostensibly to relieve TSA of some non-screening duties to allow those employees to focus on screening (since ICE agents themselves haven’t completed legally-required training to do screening themselves). In fact, it appears that ICE agents are largely not relieving TSA from other duties.

Agents have been deployed to Atlanta; Chicago O’Hare; Cleveland; Houston Hobby [when the worst lines are at Intercontinental]; Fort Myers; New Orleans; New York JFK and LaGuardia; Newark; Philadephia; Phoenix; Pittsburgh; San Juan. Sending ICE to San Juan is just trolling.

Here’s ICE at New York JFK terminal 8:

And JFK terminal 5:

Here they are walking around Newark.

And Houston Hobby:

New York LaGuardia has been closed because of the Air Canada Jazz tragedy last night, so there’s no line at TSA. But ICE has been deployed there nonetheless.

In some cases, ICE agents are at least standing at checkpoints (even if they aren’t replacing TSA document checkers).

Bear in mind that ICE agents are law enforcement, while TSA screeners generally are not, and that means they have far broader detention and arrest powers. Law enforcement is needed for these TSA lines, although it’s not clear ICE was the best agency pick for this. They’re being pulled off of immigration enforcement (and in some cases terrorism investigations). Here’s what lines out into a parking garage look like in New Orleans:

Things are pretty ugly in Orlando.

Atlanta is next-level.

With over 11% of TSA screeners calling out from work nationally (versus 2% on a normal day) and over 50% at some airports, lines are backing up. Replacing them would be 4,000 – 5,000 screeners needed. A few hundred ICE agents have deployed and don’t appear to be doing work that frees up any of them, and cannot themselves perform screening duties. So this is all for show.

TSA has real problems. Historically it has been ineffective at its job of finding dangerous objects going through checkpoints. The same agent should not be regulating security and performing the security function – regulating itself – and this is why they’ve been so unaccountable. And the agency has mostly blocked airports from opting for private screeners over time (the way San Francisco, Kansas City, Sarasota and others have). Where that’s been allowed, the airports themselves have little say in the contractors that are assigned.

Still, holding TSA hostage over an immigration policy fight is insane and literally both sides are doing it. Democrats won’t fund the Department of Homeland Security without immigration enforcement reforms (some of which are eminently reasonable). Republicans haven’t allowed funding for TSA – or even ‘all of DHS except immigration, which is already being paid’. And so passengers are being ransomed over policy proxy fights, which also include the SAVE Act (voter eligibility) in addition to immigration. The stupidity must end.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. This is on all but one Democrat Senator. Take notes and vote appropriately..To those of you that travel out of DCA, let those idiots know your feelings as they bypass the lines.

  2. Insane that they can skip the lines, especially once some Congresswomen are likely security risks, if you ask me.

  3. Looks like a good week to reschedule if flying into or out of any of the airports in question.

  4. @Coffee Please
    Dems have offered to carve out money for TSA but the Repubs have said no because their supreme leader says no.

  6. Anyone that says that this is because of the democrats is just wrong – they carved out funding for the TSA in their proposal and even offered to pass a separate bill just funding the TSA while they negotiate on the rest of the proposal. But the republicans rejected that.

  7. Maybe the ICE agents can catch that flight attendant who tried to enter the US illegally when she was thrown 100m from the airplane that crashed?

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