The Transportation Security Administration has been experiencing staff shortages with over 50,000 TSA officers not receiving pay since the United States partial government shutdown, starting Feb 14. To add on, more than 480 transportation security officers have quit because of the shutdown. This shortage is resulting in historically long TSA wait times and the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to come into airports to “assist.”
This seems like a way for ICE to get closer to transportation; to control who comes in and out. We’ve seen wrongful detainments and ICE’s presence at airports has already raised concerns of racial profiling.
ICE can cause a disruption that is much greater than the long lines and missed flights. Deploying them in crowded and stressful airports will create fear in those traveling. A viral video online shows a woman being detained. The National Immigration Law Center has published a guide on immigration arrests at airports on its website for immigrants to know safety tips while traveling through U.S. airports.
In December, ICE was using airport data to find those with deportation orders; however, going outside what is expected won’t be surprising, knowing ICE’s reputation.
The government shutdown and subsequent travel frenzy are rooted in a debate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Trump said March 21 that he would order ICE to go to airports if Democrats did not agree on the bill for funding DHS.
The TSA chief administrator, Ha Nguyen McNeill, warned if the shutdown continues, airports will shut down. McNeill stressed the importance of acknowledging the financial strain on TSA workers and noted during the hearing that around 95% of TSA employees are deemed essential and must continue to work without pay.
“Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public,” McNeill said.
Airports are stressful enough; now that lines are longer, it will be harder for people to keep their cool. McNeill said that TSA workers have experienced 500% more assaults since the shutdown began.
This is frightening enough, but now that ICE is in the picture, this can mean something else to fear for travelers and even TSA workers. Many worry about ICE officers’ qualifications to perform like TSA. ICE, however, is only there for crowd control, not for the X-ray machines. But, this could go badly quickly.
“ICE is not trained to do the same work as TSA,“ said Cathy Creighton, director of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-lab. "TSA workers are not law enforcement officers, and they do not carry firearms."
In saying this, Creighton reveals what everyone is afraid of: violence appearing in airports. She said the work the administration wants done causes ICE officers to be “aggressive in public situations,” and it isn’t the type of environment someone using the airport would want to encounter, as this behavior might not work in “crowded and confined airports.”
“It would seem that a softer, de-escalating of tensions approach would work best, but ICE agents are not acting as though they are trained for de-escalation,” Creighton said. “Employee training is critical for proper performance of a job, and putting ICE officers to do TSA work could lead to poor results.”
It’s possible ICE may use this deployment as a chance to detain traveling individuals. It’s not long before crowd control turns into tearing people away from their loved ones. If deployed to “ease” line delays, it’s easy to imagine ICE seizing the opportunity to take people out of line.
Videos on TikTok of airport goers show lines wrapping around airports, along with videos conveying fear.
“It’s scary, I’m scared,” a citizen said in a video published by BBC News on TikTok.
Cassidy McClurg is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Cassidy about their column? Email cm303824@ohio.edu
