The ICE agents that President Donald Trump has dispatched to airports are being photographed doing little while collecting pay, even as TSA officers continue to go unpaid.
Trump has deployed ICE agents at 14 major airports, promising the “brilliant and patriotic” agents would “do Security like no one has ever seen before” amid TSA staffing shortages due to the partial government shutdown.
But photos from airports across the country show ICE agents chit-chatting in groups, sitting at cafes with coffee in hand, and drifting through terminals with lunch bags as passengers continue to stew in long lines.
Bulletproof-vested ICE agents dispatched to Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico were photographed lounging in a cafe, sipping coffee and happily chatting among themselves.
Meanwhile, a half-dozen ICE agents were seen walking through Washington Dulles International Airport, each clutching a takeout bag from the restaurant chain CAVA—hard at work at… lunch.
At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where passengers reportedly spent hours crawling through security lines on Monday, agents roamed around with the sports drink Bodyarmor in their hands.
Milling around in groups appeared to be a common thread across the airports. At New York’s JFK airport, where wait times still stretch close to an hour, according to CNN, agents were captured standing in a circle, appearing engrossed in conversation while sipping their Starbucks drinks.
While Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said on Monday that ICE agents were “filling the holes” left by TSA staffing gaps, he has also admitted that the agents are not trained in X-ray screening machines and would mostly provide “extra security.”
As a result, ICE agents have hovered behind unpaid TSA officers handling the screening, acted as wayfinding assistants, handed out water to passengers, and patrolled the halls rather than directly speeding up wait times.
Several DHS sources told CBS News over the weekend that the department, which oversees ICE, was blindsided by Trump’s order. One official put it plainly: “I have no idea what we’re doing.”
About 61,000 TSA employees have missed their paychecks since the partial government shutdown began on February 14. More than 400 TSA officers have quit and others are calling out at record rates.
Democrats in Congress have refused to fund DHS, unless Republicans agree on a set of reforms to ICE, including a ban on masks for ICE agents, stricter warrant requirements for public arrests, and ending roaming patrols.
ICE, which is part of DHS, has not been affected by the shutdown because the agency was granted $75 billion in additional funds under Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” boosting the agency’s budget to levels higher than the annual military spending of most European armies.
Trump stopped short of endorsing a Republican proposal to end the shutdown after he swore in new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Monday. The GOP proposal would fund DHS but leaves out money for ICE enforcement operations.
When reached for comment, DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis told the Daily Beast that Democrats were to blame.
“This pointless, reckless shutdown of our homeland security workforce has caused more than 450 TSA officers to quit and thousands to call out from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent. While the Democrats continue to put the safety, dependability, and ease of our air travel at risk, President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, that are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted,” she said.
“Because of the Democrat shutdown, President Trump is using every tool available to help American travelers who are facing hours-long lines at airports across the country—especially during this spring break and holiday season that is very important for many American families. This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
