Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were stationed at three New York City area airports Monday in what officials said was an effort to assist TSA with delays and long security lines due to the partial government shutdown.
John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty international airports were three of the airports across the country where ICE agents in tactical gear were posted on Monday morning, according to the Port Authority. Their presence amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants nationwide unnerved some travelers and led to outcry among some politicians and advocates.
The order to reassign agents to airports came from Trump in the midst of a partial government shutdown battle over funding to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE, which has crippled airport security as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents call in sick or even quit after multiple missed paychecks.
In Washington, Democrats are refusing to fund ICE without a change in enforcement tactics following the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. If an agreement isn’t reached this week, the shutdown could extend into Congress’s two-week recess starting Saturday – meaning a continuation of hours-long lines and missed flights for some travelers.
“Democrats continue to offer resolutions to fund TSA, and why [Trump is] not doing it is because he wants to continue the reckless chaotic actions of ICE,” Sen. Cory Booker said at a press conference at Newark airport, pushing back on the narrative from Trump and other Republicans that Democrats were at fault for the airport woes. On Monday afternoon, president Trump rejected an effort proposed by Democrats to fund the DHS except for ICE.
The agents’ presence proved concerning for some travelers, citizens and noncitizens alike.
“I have my fight or flight response very much active,” said Oz, a 25-year-old consultant who was at LaGuardia Airport’s departure area Sunday night when the news broke. ICE agents were deployed to LaGuardia Monday hours after a collision between two aircrafts led to the airport’s temporary closure.
Oz, who asked to use a nickname due to his immigration status and fear of reprisals at his job, is originally from Pakistan and was traveling with his partner. He said that he would still have traveled even after hearing ICE was at the airport — but wondered how their presence would make travelers feel, particularly with multiple international events like the World Cup coming to the city.
“We have places to be. I was here to visit friends, but I have to go back to work,” he said. He later added: “Instead of putting a lot of people at ease, it puts them more in a place of fear. And I don’t think people should be in a place of fear.”
On Monday, immigration agents moved throughout all three airports’ terminals. Officials said officers were not screening passengers but instead were being stationed at entrances and exits to deal with crowd control. While a Friday night detention at San Francisco International Airport spurred concern of what could happen Monday, social media reports have showed agents largely idle, walking unmasked in areas where passengers waited to enter still-congested security lines.
Lubna El-Gendi, 41, waited nearly an hour in the security line at LaGuardia on her way to visit relatives in Florida. El-Gendi told Documented that she saw roughly a dozen ICE officers stationed by the security checkpoint.
At times they walked the line or used the restroom, but travelers largely ignored them, she said.
“It just kind of felt like an absolute waste of resources, like they weren’t helping TSA at all,” said El-Gendi, who grew up in Queens as the daughter of immigrant New Yorkers. “They were literally just standing there.”
The move to deploy ICE proved especially bewildering for TSA officers as spring break travel flooded through the city’s airports. Hydrick Thomas, president of the TSA workers union, said that instead of helping TSA, immigration officers were largely unhelpful, wandering around the public areas of the terminals, unable to even give directions to travelers.
Meanwhile, TSA agents — trained in customer service and security screening — are facing 37 days of no pay, said Thomas, which deeply impacts workers’ ability to pay their bills, feed their families, or even get to work in the first place. Since the shutdown, record numbers of TSA agents called out of work sick or quit.
“I’m trying to understand why they [are] here at the airport,” said Thomas, AFGE TSA Council 100 President, who works at JFK. “They’re not here to help TSA, I can tell you that. I have no clue why they’re really here.”
In the wake of multiple government shutdowns, and the resulting instability of missed paychecks, even decades-long employees are considering leaving the field or have already left, said former union Regional Vice President Thomas Schoregge. He said TSA workers are unhappy about ICE’s presence at airports, and scared about losing jobs — fueled by the president’s moves and Project 2025’s plan to privatize passenger screening.
Schoregge also works at JFK airport and said he has had to tell his own two children they can’t eat the same way they used to, turning down trips to McDonald’s for even cheaper eats while he waits for a paycheck. A 23-year veteran of TSA, he has even considered leaving the agency himself – and even applied to ICE.
“It comes down to, I can’t keep doing this myself,” he said, noting that another government funding deadline is in just a few months. “And it’s just, how many times I gotta keep doing this under this administration for me to constantly say we’re all not getting paid six months out of the year?“
Jonathan Fernandes contributed to this article.
Correction: Hydrick Thomas is the president of the national TSA workers union. An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified his title.
