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Trump administration touts plan for ICE at airports amid criticism from union, Democrats

US President Donald ⁠Trump’s border tsar said on Sunday that having immigration agents bolster short-staffed Transportation Security Administration (TSA) teams will speed up airport queues…

By Samantha Johnson / March 22, 2026

US President Donald ⁠Trump’s border tsar said on Sunday that having immigration agents bolster short-staffed Transportation Security Administration (TSA) teams will speed up airport queues but the union for TSA workers said that does not solve what they see as the underlying problem of pay.

In appearances on Sunday news shows, US border tsar Tom Homan and Transport Secretary Sean Duffy argued that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staff can help with airport security screening, starting on Monday, ‌even though they have not been specifically trained for it.

“When we deploy tomorrow, we’ll have a well thought-out plan to execute,” Homan said on CNN’s State of the Union programme.

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Tens of thousands of TSA agents have been working without pay for weeks because of an impasse between Democrats and Republicans in Congress over funding the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE and TSA.

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Democrats have criticised the department’s immigration operations that have killed US citizens and sparked public outrage, demanding a ⁠change in rules.

Some 10 per cent of TSA employees have been absent from work in recent days, with the rate even higher at major airports in Atlanta, New York ‌City and Houston, leading to lengthy queues for passengers trying to get to their gates. Hundreds of TSA agents have simply resigned, according to their labour union and TSA.

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