Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents began patrolling at least 14 airports nationwide on Monday, including Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport, as the Trump administration sought to ramp up pressure on Democrats five weeks into a funding impasse.
In Phoenix, Houston, Chicago, New York, New Orleans and other cities, uniformed ICE agents were seen directing passengers through checkpoints staffed by Transportation Security Administration officers.
The agents wore vests and some were armed with handguns.
At least 400 TSA officers have quit after being forced to work without paychecks during a partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14
President Donald Trump announced the ICE deployment Sunday. On Monday he added that “I would greatly appreciate… NO MASKS” while agents were on airport duty. Despite that directive, photos shared by travelers and news media showed agents with face coverings at several airports.
“They’ll do great – and if that’s not enough, I’ll bring in the National Guard,” Trump told reporters early in the day.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t say how many agents were deployed. NBC News reported that a senior ICE official said at least 50 would be on duty at each airport per shift.
At Sky Harbor, many flyers were apprehensive about discussing the ICE presence.
A woman arriving from Denver who declined to give her name said she was “happy not to see (ICE agents) in Denver” when she went through security.
Another woman returning home to Florida after her daughter’s wedding, Marti McCann, said security seemed normal.
“Easy peasy, no problem at all right now,” she said.
Democrats have blasted the Trump administration for putting immigration enforcement agents in airports.
Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Phoenix, called a news conference at Sky Harbor to vent his anger at the deployment.
“What ICE has been doing on the American streets, particularly in Minneapolis, is unacceptable to me and is unacceptable to the vast majority of Americans,” he said. “ICE needs to be changed and reformed, and ICE has no place in American airports.”
Stanton said the presence of ICE is “creating palpable fear among Americans and the traveling public.”
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego called the deployment “reckless and irresponsible” in an X post.
Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego posted that airport security is “not an exit guard job” – a jab at White House border czar Tom Homan, who said Sunday on CNN that ICE agents don’t need any special training to fill in for TSA officers because they “are well trained in security.”
Congressional Democrats have bashed Republicans for rejecting multiple Democratic bills that would restore funding for DHS and its many agencies, except for ICE. Republicans have blamed growing security lines and delays on Democrats for opposing measures to fund all of DHS.
A funding bill needs 60 votes to clear the Senate and Republicans hold only 53 of 100 seats.
At Sky Harbor, two of the four security checkpoints in Terminal 4 have been closed since last week due to staffing shortages.
Some Phoenix travelers reported waits up to a half-hour, though at midday, the wait was as short as 10 minutes. Many flyers were pleasantly surprised, given the warnings about long delays and staffing shortages.
Even before immigration officers killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January during protests against an enforcement surge, Democrats refused to support DHS funding without significant changes at ICE.
Their demands include a ban on face masks for agents, visible ID and body-worn cameras; court-issued warrants to enter private property; and a prohibition on targeting people based on accent, race or language.
Gallego has said he won’t support funding for ICE without “meaningful reform,” including mandatory body cameras. ICE “cannot exist as we know it now,” he asserted before the shutdown.
Defenders of masking say it protects agents from being doxed.
Trump reiterated Monday that he supports ICE agents wearing masks in the field, though not while assigned to help TSA at airports.
That stance made a compromise with Democrats on ICE funding seem less likely.
At Sky Harbor, overhead announcements alerted travelers to the presence of ICE. The airport also posted a fact sheet assuring travelers that “all federal officers will operate in accordance with law and in a manner that is consistent with the customer service standards PHX is known for.”
The House and Senate are scheduled to begin a two-week recess on Friday. By the time they return April 13, the DHS shutdown would be nearing 60 days.
The longest federal shutdown in U.S. history, in October and November, lasted 43 days. That ended with a temporary funding deal and then, with no consensus yet on ICE, a longer-term deal that excluded DHS.
On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., floated the idea of funding all of DHS except ICE for now. That would restore pay and funding at TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other DHS components.
Trump objected, saying Republicans should reject any deal that doesn’t include the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require proof of citizenship and photo ID when registering to vote.
Thune told reporters Monday that “we all know that’s not realistic,” given the broad Democratic opposition. The minority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has called the SAVE bill “dead on arrival.”
Trump wants Congress to cancel its Easter recess if a funding agreement isn’t reached.
Democrats blasted the use of ICE at airports.
“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,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Sundayon CNN, after Trump announced the plan.House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said he supports the move because it would “drive the Democrats crazy.”
This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
