Trump to deploy ICE agents to airports Monday

[Attilatheblond]

https://www.axios.com/2026/03/22/trump-ice-agents-airports-tsa-dhs-shutdown]

Driving the news: White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN's "State of the Union" that he's "currently working on the plan now." He said ICE agents would not operate X-ray machines but could guard exit lanes and check IDs to free up TSA officers.

Asked how a plan created in 24 hours could be well thought out, Homan replied: "How much of a plan does it mean to guard an exit to make sure no one comes through that exit?"
It takes four to six months to train and certify TSA officers, according to DHS, a process ICE agents have not undergone. There is no law mandating specific training requirements for checkpoint screeners, and the acting TSA administrator could designate ICE agents to fill those roles, former TSA administrator John Pistole tells Axios.

Curious about ICE attire for doing TSA gigs at airports: Will they have a dress code? Will they be told NOT to show up in masks, and all the military security blankie stuff they take comfort in? If they aren't forced to leave the masks, guns, flack vests, gas canisters at home, how will we tell them apart from any possible terrorists taking advantage of GOP bad planning?

[agingdem]

1. and what is ICE tasked to do..

round up brown and black people and anyone with a foreign accent and send them to a deportation facility?...

if the airlines are still into making money then maybe they should consider funding the TSA because the threat of ICE lying in wait will more than likely put a damper on ticket sales...

[obamanut2012]

3. Homan said checking ID before the screening line

Like TSA officers are doing now.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

6. Honan said that might be a possibility, and will be figured out today for implementation tomorrow.

I would trust showing my ID to TSA, but not to ICE. I want nothing to do with these thugs - nothing. I'm too old, too fragile. I want nothing to do with cruelty. I would probably say something and get thrown to the ground by these ill-trained, angry Nazis.

[Attilatheblond]

10. Is Stephen Miller dropping the ICE thugs' quotas while they screw up TSA work?

Cuz if those thugs lose bonus money due to not being able to arrest anybody they can catch to meet a quota, this is gonna be worse than we can imagine.

[Joinfortmill]

21. What could go wrong?

[snot]

2. Great.

They weren't qualified to conduct ICE ops, and now they're not qualified to conduct TSA ops. No doubt they'll soon start conducting other ops they're not qualified for – maybe Social Security.

[Attilatheblond]

11. Maybe open heart surgery as our supply of doctors from other nations is getting thin due to ICE.

[orangecrush]

4. No one in their right mind will pay for a ticket

To deal with these assholes.

[EarthFirst]

5. Today it's checking ID's at the airport...

…tomorrow it’s checking ID at polling stations.

Hard pass.

[yorkster]

7. Stormy Monday and Tuesday's just as bad...

Hope that's not the case, but ICE at the airport is a terrible idea.

[leftstreet]

8. Just transfer ICE money to TSA

How hard is that? Click, click we all know how to do a bank transfer from home

[MineralMan]

9. Now That's Brilliant!

Perfect.

They could Venmo money right into the TSA Agents' bank accounts. Use that technology, boys!

[Big Blue Marble]

12. So at the time terrorism risk is high,

we will have untrained ICE agents screening for terrorists rather than trained
TSA agents. ....

[Attilatheblond]

14. Might as well. Petty Kash fired the FBI unit most qualified to keep track of Iranian cyber threats

Sure looks like the Trump Mob WANTS the US to be attacked.

Since the good people of Los Angeles, D.C., Chicago and Minneapolis/St Paul would not do violent riots to enable Trump to do the martial law he's so hopeful for, guess the Trumpians will just let terrorists attack us to get an excuse.

[Initech]

29. The real terrorists are sitting comfortably in the White House.

[Vinca]

13. You always wonder, what can make a situation worse? Then Trump provides the answer.

[bluestarone]

16. THAT is the truth!

[Joinfortmill]

22. This!

[Diraven]

17. This is gonna turn bad so quickly

There will be cell phone videos of masked ICE agents carrying assault weapons beating and pepper spraying brown people inside airports within a day. They don't know how to do anything else.

[James48]

18. I wouldn't check any luggage.

TSA also screens the bags downstairs - and if you thought your valuables were at risk before, just wait until those hoodlums start ruffling through your underwear and Sox in your bag.

[James48]

19. Don't forget to tell the ICE guys

That TSA work doesn’t qualify for that big $50k bonus money.

If you leave the street and go do airplanes you will still have a job with ICE, but it voids your bonus. You won’t get it.

And, you’ll get TSA starting pay rates. Thats about half of ICE agent pay is.

[Klarkashton]

20. One more reason to stay away from airports.

Who needs some shitbird in blue jeans with a a mask and gun demanding my papers. Fuck this place.

[SeattleVet]

23. So he's at the 'seizing the airports ' phase ..

next will be manning the ramparts?

[quakerboy]

24. This is AMAZING

I think this is the best thing they could possibly do.

1: Diverting resources away from the pointless hunting of brown folks. We paid for ICE, lets actually use them for something thats less targetedly cruel. Every ICE agent posted at an airport is one less Ice agent stalking some poor mom trying to get her kid to school or shooting a protester in the head. Or raping someone in a concentration camp.

2) In my experience its largely not the poorest of folks who are flying. The lower mid and mid mid fill most of the seats, best i can tell. The ones who often have an attitude that maybe ICE has gone a bit too far, but they are needed because criminals and stuff, and then dont really think further on the issue. People who are not used to the type of treatment that ice specializes in. Those encounters should be pretty revealing for everyone involved, one way or another. Either we learn that ICE is capable of treating people like humans and chooses not to, or a whole new class of folks get the ICE treatment shoved in their faces in a way thats hard to ignore. Or both.

[Ilikepurple]

28. I don't like the idea of ICE at the airports, but both of your points seem salient.

I am afraid that it will be used as training ground for poll “policing”, but it might have the unintended consequence of waking people up to ICE’s tactics and foment more resistance to ICE at polling stations. I’m not sure most of America is ready to face interaction with ICE agents, their dress, or their demeanor in the high stress environment of an overlong TSA line. I think you’re right that many who are on the fence about ICE’s tactics being justified will not like that much camouflage and bluster in their face. It seems to have such a great chance of backfiring that I’m not sure how serious the administration is about going through with it. Of course with Trump 47 isn’t known for his restraint.

[littlemissmartypants]

25. Expect recreational flying by our beloved diverse friends and neighbors, nonessential flying start to curtail.

The airlines won't have to voluntarily ration fuel or cut flights. They might actually park planes and keep raising ticket prices.

More negative hits to the economy but mostly to our quality of life overall.

What a blast.

[miyazaki]

26. They'll be harassing people of color in the damn parking lots.

This will include tons of foreign tourists.

And I also can't believe the fucking drivel I just read from someone above who claims this will be "amazing".

[JBTaurus83]

27. They will be at a couple of airports

To appease the dementia patient’s rantings and then end it. They will totally kill the tourism economy between this and the fuel crisis if they were to be drawn out.