Though the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers have begun to receive pay again, border czar Tom Homan says Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could continue maintaining a presence at U.S. airports.
A czar serves as an administration’s designated official on a specific topic or policy matter. Homan has stated that ICE at the airport may continue depending on the number of TSA workers who return to their posts and the security needs of individual airports. He described ICE’s work in airports as “plugging security holes” amid the TSA staffing shortage and a “heightened threat.”
“We’ll see. It depends on how many TSA agents come back to work [and] how many TSA agents have actually quit and have no plan [of] coming back to work,” Homan said about the future of ICE at airports during CNN’s State of the Union on March 29. “I’m working very closely with [the] TSA administrator and the ICE director to decide what airport needs what.”
“If less TSA agents come back, that means we’ll keep more ICE agents there,” he added on CBS’ Face the Nation that same day. “The President has been clear. He wants to secure those airports, especially, as I said earlier, in an increased threat posture, we need to secure those airports. ICE is there to help our brothers and sisters in TSA. We’ll be there as long as they need us, until they get back to normal operations and feel like those airports are secure.”
What Else Is There To Know About ICE At Airports And TSA Funding?
The current partial government shutdown in the United States is officially the country’s longest, at 45 days and counting. It is the third government shutdown in the past six months. The state of affairs has resulted in a lapse in funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), of which the TSA is a part.
Subsequently, TSA officers — deemed essential — have been required to continue working without pay. The situation has prompted staff shortages, mass call-outs, and over 500 workers to quit. Additionally, certain airports across the U.S. have experienced TSA security delays, with wait times exceeding five hours. The Trump administration deployed ICE into select U.S. airports beginning March 23.
On March 27, the Senate approved an action to fund most of DHS, including its TSA arm. The measure now awaits a vote in the House of Representatives. Also on March 27, Trump signed an executive order requiring DHS to get TSA officers paid. The department later tweeted a statement updating Americans on TSA funding and worker pay. The notice disclosed that TSA workers could begin receiving pay within days.
“Today, at the direction of President Trump and @SecMullinDHS [DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin], TSA has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce,” the tweet said in part. “TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30. TSA is grateful to the President and Secretary for their leadership to put money back into the pockets of TSA employees who worked without pay during the ongoing Democrat DHS shutdown.”
Congress is currently on a two-week recess, with the House of Representatives and Senate not scheduled to resume business until April 13.
