Trump threatens to deploy ICE to airports, as TSA shutdown crisis spirals

President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to the nation’s airports as early as Monday, turning the ongoing US government shutdown into a full-blown airport security crisis that is stranding travellers, pushing TSA staff to the brink, and putting Congress under mounting pressure to act.

“If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!” he added.

The threat lands on the five-week mark of a partial government shutdown that has brought US airport security to the point of breakdown. Congress missed a February 14 deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security, leaving nearly 50,000 TSA employees working for weeks without pay, prompting a wave of callouts and resignations that has caused hours-long queues at airports across the country. Officials have warned that some smaller airports could be forced to close entirely due to staffing shortages, and wait times are not expected to improve until government funding is restored and TSA officers begin receiving paychecks.

The on-the-ground situation is already alarming. TSA officers are approaching their second month without a full paycheck, with many relying on food banks and side jobs to survive. As of March 17, 366 security officers had quit the agency since the start of the shutdown, with absences spiking sharply at major hubs, including a staggering 55 per cent callout rate at Houston Hobby International Airport on March 14, and 38 per cent absenteeism at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Wait times of 120 minutes were reported at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, while Atlanta reported 80-minute queues at its main checkpoint.

Trump’s proposed remedy deploying ICE agents, has drawn immediate scepticism. ICE agents are not trained in airport security screening, and it remains entirely unclear what function they would perform at security checkpoints. Analysts suggest agents could potentially assist in limited roles such as managing queues and directing passengers, freeing trained TSA officers for critical screening functions, but any formal security role would represent an unprecedented use of immigration enforcement personnel.

Trump also made clear the deployment would double as an immigration enforcement operation. He said the ICE agents would carry out “the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia”, a reference to his longstanding attacks on the Somali-American community in Minnesota.

The political standoff that created the crisis shows little sign of resolution. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has proposed a standalone vote to fund only the TSA while negotiations on ICE continue — a move Republicans have blocked. Democrats have demanded that any DHS funding bill include reforms requiring ICE agents to obtain judicial warrants before entering homes and to clearly identify themselves while on duty, conditions Republicans have called non-starters. ICE itself has been unaffected by the shutdown, having received $75 billion in additional funding through Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” legislative package.

An unexpected intervention came from Elon Musk, who offered on Saturday morning to personally cover TSA workers’ salaries. “I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country,” Musk wrote on X, though it was immediately unclear how such an arrangement would work or whether it would be legally permissible.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that the situation was only going to worsen: “As we get into next week and they’re about to miss another payment, this is going to look like child’s play, what’s happening right now.” With spring break travel now accelerating the pressure on already understaffed airports, both parties face intensifying public anger, and little time to find a way out.