The airport chaos may not be over yet, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are set to remain at many airports across the US.
Tom Homan, the White House’s border czar, told CBS News on Sunday that ICE would remain “until the airports feel like they’re 100%.”
It comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday for Transportation and Security Administration agents to be paid.
For over a month, travelers have faced hourslong lines at airport security checkpoints as more TSA agents called out of work. Some 500 of them have left their jobs since the partial government shutdown began in mid-February.
“If less TSA agents come back, that means we’ll keep more ICE agents there,” Homan told CBS News.
“We’ll be there as long as they need us until they get back to normal operations and feel like those airports are secure,” he added.
The Department of Homeland Security has said that TSA agents should be paid as early as Monday.
While wait times have alleviated, some still remain above typical levels. For example, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental previously saw four-hour lines, and its website showed waits up to 60 minutes on Monday morning. Waits of over 30 minutes were still present at New York JFK on Monday.
ICE agents were deployed to 14 major airports. Homan told CNN on Sunday that they have been “protecting the exit lanes, doing identification checks, plugging the security holes.”
The presence of ICE at airports has drawn criticism from flight attendants’ unions.
“The introduction of ICE agents into airports creates contradictory missions, as attempts to question passengers about immigration status may distract them from ensuring airport security,” they said in a joint statement earlier this month.
The Association of Flight Attendants created an online form for its members to report any concerns or incidents, like ICE agents “doing work they are not trained to do, such as screening passengers and baggage.”
The Senate approved a deal early Friday to fund DHS, but Republicans in the House rejected it.
Republicans want more funding for ICE, but Democrats want to see the agency reformed in the wake of January’s violence in Minnesota.
The DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside US working hours.
In a statement last Friday, it said, “Deploying ICE officers to airports was critical in helping Americans travel across the country.”
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