Imani Tailly, News Writer 

On March 23, 2026, the Trump administration deployed ICE agents to over a dozen airports across the United States to support TSA and address growing wait times. TSA funding lapsed in mid-February and has resulted in major issues for travelers across the U.S. As reported by NPR, since the funding lapse, “more than 480 agents have quit […] and thousands more have called out of work each day.” In a response to NPR when they asked about ICE operating in airports, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Lauren Bis said ICE agents will be, “guarding entrances and exits, assisting with logistics, doing crowd control, and verifying identification using TSA equipment and standard operating procedures.” Support is needed because the lapse in funding for TSA has specifically resulted in extremely long wait times, delays, and even flight cancellations. According to CNN on March 23, George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston was anticipating that wait times to get through TSA could reach four hours. At that time, the airport was running with only 2 security check-ins with wait times over two hours. 

The White House was clear that ICE will still be pursuing their own primary goal which has been amplified under the Trump administration. White House border czar Tom Homan, who is overseeing this project, made it clear that ICE agents would target “criminal activity” as it is their main goal. NPR quoted a statement by Homan to Fox News, in which he said, “We’re doing a security function at the airports. We’re going to arrest criminals going through the airport. We’re going to look for human trafficking, sex trafficking, money smuggling.” 

ICE agents had been deployed to a total of 14 airports at the time of this writing. According to USA Today, these included major hubs such as John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The list also included Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There were also reports of ICE being in airports not named in the original 14 including Dulles International Airport and Washington Reagan National Airport, both in Virginia.  

Early on Friday, March 27, members of the Senate passed a funding agreement that excluded funding for immigration enforcement, but later that day, the House passed a different stop-gap spending bill after the Senate bill was met with resistance. As Sam Gringlas reported for NPR, the Senate’s funding agreement would have funded not only TSA, but also FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the Coast Guard. Despite these legislative conflicts, ICE continues to work during this lapse in funding due to $75 billion provided by the “Big Beautiful Bill.” 

With the House and Senate unable to agree on a stop-gap funding bill, a memo signed by President Trump on Friday directs “the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations to provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them” during the shutdown. This memo means that TSA agents could see paychecks by Monday, March 30. As of this writing, it is not yet known how this possible reestablishment of funding for TSA will impact ICE presence at airports. 

The possibility of funding being restored for TSA when ICE was just sent out earlier in the same week brings into question how well our leaders in Washington are working in unity. A major concern is whether ICE will receive funding in future bills. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins said in a statement published by CNBC, “Congressional Democrats have done real damage to the appropriations process by repeatedly forcing government shutdowns and refusing to fund entire agencies. Their refusal to fund ICE and Border Patrol leaves our borders and our country less secure and sets a precedent that they may one day come to regret.” In contrast, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement shared by CNN, “This could have been accomplished weeks ago if Republicans hadn’t stood in the way. Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms.” 

Americans will see the results of these debates in the coming weeks. With polls from PBS saying six in 10 Americans do not support ICE, the question remains whether public opinion will impact the decisions made by lawmakers in Washington.