ICE Agents Deployed To Airports: What PHL Travelers Should Know

PHILADELPHIA — Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been placed at several airports with staffing shortages, leading to the possibility of ICE at Philadelphia International Airport.

ICE agents began deploying to more than a dozen U.S. airports on Monday to help with TSA staffing shortages. TSA personnel have been working unpaid since the partial federal-government shutdown began in mid-February.

There have been no reports of ICE conducting security at the Philadelphia Airport as of this writing. But multiple media outlets, including CNN and 6abc Action News, say the Trump administration plans to send them there.

A sizable portion of TSA's workforce has quit or called out in recent weeks, leading to shortages at airport security screenings.

Philadelphia International Airport has closed three of its six TSA checkpoints to address the shortage.

Lines snaked through the airport early Thursday. An airport spokesperson said it happened when the airport's first TSA checkpoint opened that morning, causing wait times of up to 44 minutes. But it settled down thereafter.

The airport's website currently shows an average wait time of less than 10 minutes at its security checkpoints.

ICE and Homeland Security Investigations officers were being deployed to 14 airports Monday morning, including JFK in New York, New York Laguardia and Newark, according to Reuters.

Both ICE and TSA are part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The partial government shutdown stems from disputes in Congress about reforms to federal immigration enforcement.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced that ICE agents would be placed in airports, pending the end of the shutdown.

"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," President Trump said on social media.

More than 400 TSA officers have quit, and thousands have called out of work, according to Lauren Bis, a DHS spokesperson.

"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," Bis said in a statement. "This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions."

Labor unions representing flight attendants and other air-travel sectors advocated for TSA workers to be paid, while calling the deployment of ICE agents "another distraction from solutions that protect Americans."

"(TSA agents have) expertise and training that ICE agents simply do not have, and cannot learn quickly," the unions said. "Furthermore, the introduction of ICE agents into airports creates contradictory missions, as attempts to question passengers about immigration status may distract them from ensuring airport security."