Trump sends ICE to airports. Critics say that doesn’t help TSA or passengers

“They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be,” Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

The Trump administration has officially deployed ICE agents to U.S. airports amid long lines and chaos, as hundreds of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers have quit and thousands more work without pay.

As Democrats and Republicans, led by the White House, fail to reach a deal over Democrats’ demands to reform ICE amid deadly and violent encounters across the country, President Donald Trump announced on Saturday, “If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before! The Fascist Democrats will never protect America, but the Republicans will.”

The president appeared uninterested in further negotiations with Democrats, who are demanding that funding for ICE be clawed back and that the immigration enforcement agency reform its tactics.

“What they have done to the Department of Homeland Security, our fantastic TSA Officers, and, most importantly, the great people of our Country, is an absolute disgrace,” said Trump.

However, Democrats point out that Republicans in Congress have rejected several bills proposed by Dems that would pay TSA workers while funding for the rest of Homeland Security and ICE continues to be negotiated.

“ICE should conduct itself like every other law enforcement agency in the country, but if Republicans are unwilling to get to an agreement in that regard, the one thing we can do immediately [is] to make sure that TSA agents are paid,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He told CNN, “It’s unfortunate that Republicans have decided that they would rather force TSA agents to work without pay, inconvenience millions of Americans all across the country, and now potentially expose them to untrained ICE agents and create chaos at airports throughout the land, rather than get ICE agents under control.”

Jeffries continued, “The last thing that the American people need are for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports all across the country, potentially to brutalize or, in some instances, kill them. We’ve already seen how ICE conducts itself. These are untrained individuals when it comes to doing the current job that they have, for the most part, let alone deploying them in close exposure and highly sensitive situations at airports across the country.”

The Trump administration’s decision to send ICE to airports was also rebuked by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the exclusive union representative for TSA workers.

“More than 50,000 TSA employees have worked without pay for over five weeks. Hundreds have quit. And Washington’s answer isn’t to pay them. It’s to send ICE agents to do their jobs,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley.

The union leader explained, “ICE agents are not trained or certified in aviation security. TSA officers spend months learning to detect explosives, weapons, and threats specifically designed to evade detection at checkpoints — skills that require specialized instruction, hands-on practice, and ongoing recertification. You cannot improvise that. Putting untrained personnel at security checkpoints does not fill a gap. It creates one.”

Kelley added, “Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe. They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”

The Trump solution to America’s TSA problem is also being criticized by air travel passengers.

“TSA, they shouldn’t have to come in and do that. I don’t agree with ICE at all, anyway. They always seem like they’re on, like just a power trip, and they just want to have control over things,” one traveler at LaGuardia Airport told MS Now’s Maya Eaglin.

Another traveler noted, “Enough is enough. ICE was not paid to come to the airport. Whatever they were paid to do, which I really don’t know, let them do that, but they don’t need to be here. My true reaction is stop the bulls—t.”