ICE agents deployed to more than a dozen US airports amid staffing gaps

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) – U.S. immigration agents began deploying at more than a dozen U.S. airports on Monday to aid security screening as staffing absences by unpaid airport security officers have caused massive delays.

The Homeland Security Department confirmed it had begun deploying hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to assist in security at airports facing significant staffing issues. 

DHS said that on Sunday nearly 12% of Transportation Security Administration officers — or more than 3,450 — did not show up for work, the highest since a partial government shutdown began more than five weeks ago.

ICE and Homeland Security Investigations officers were being deployed to around 14 airports including in Atlanta, two in New York, Newark, New Orleans, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, and Fort Myers, Florida, according to officials and social media posts.

Separately, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson – the busiest U.S. airport – told passengers to arrive at least four hours early on Monday for flights after more than 40% of TSA officers did not show up for work on Sunday.

CROWD CONTROL, NOT IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT

The nation’s 50,000 TSA airport security officers are not getting paid due to the partial shutdown.

Social media posts showed ICE agents standing near TSA officers who were checking IDs.

For now, ICE personnel will not be deployed in areas behind airport security checkpoints because they lack the specific clearance needed, sources told Reuters.

At airports in Houston, Baltimore, New Orleans, New York and Atlanta, more than one-third of TSA staff were calling in sick or otherwise absent, DHS said, as the shutdown left tens of thousands working without pay while congressional Democrats and Republicans argue over the DHS budget.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said federal officials had indicated that the ICE deployment would support TSA in crowd control and managing security lines in domestic terminals, and is “not intended to conduct immigration enforcement activities.”

President Donald Trump said on Monday that ICE agents could make immigration arrests but that was not the mission.

“They’re able to now arrest illegals as they come into the country. That’s very fertile territory. But that’s not why they’re there. They’re really there to help,” he told reporters.

Democrats have held up funding for DHS while demanding a change in rules governing its immigration operations, after agents in Minneapolis shot and killed U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, sparking public outrage. Republicans have rejected Democratic proposals to fund TSA while negotiating over ICE reforms.

More than 400 TSA agents have resigned since the start of the latest partial government shutdown on February 14.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Ted Hesson; Editing by Toby Chopra, Andrei Khalip and Bill Berkrot)