Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement began to be deployed at airports across the country Monday morning, but it was unclear whether their presence was helping or exacerbating long security lines.
Between 100 and 150 ICE officers were sent to the airports to assist Transportation Security Administration agents, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to discuss the matter. The official said that the ICE agents were not expected to make immigration arrests as part of this assistance, though that appeared to conflict with President Trump’s statement about the agents on Sunday.
Despite the deployment of the agents, along with a collision and subsequent airport closure at LaGuardia Airport overnight, flight delays and cancellations were minimal at major U.S. airports on Monday morning, according to FlightAware, which tracks aviation data.
Still, hours of waiting at T.S.A. checkpoints threatened to cause many travelers to miss their flights. Some airports, including Kennedy and Newark Liberty International Airports in the New York City area, were not updating their live wait-time trackers on Monday, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the world’s busiest airport, replaced its real-time tracker with a notice that passengers should arrive at least four hours before their scheduled departure time “due to current federal conditions.”
At the three standard security checkpoints at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, which has been plagued by long lines for weeks, waiting times on Monday morning stood between 120 and 180 minutes.
Early Monday, ICE agents were seen at Newark Liberty in New Jersey, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta and O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. Some strode through terminal halls on regular patrols, while others were stationed at security checkpoints.
Agents were armed with handguns and wore vests inscribed with their agency letters but were not wearing masks. In a Monday morning post on Truth Social, President Trump said that he preferred that the agents did not wear masks.
He said he would deploy the National Guard, too, if the ICE agents could not alleviate delays.
Some travelers expressed unease over the presence of the federal agents, following widespread public anger over ICE’s enforcement operations in other cities over the past year, particularly early this year in Minneapolis. Agents have used aggressive tactics in their pursuit of immigrants they wanted to deport, and they killed two American citizens, prompting protests across the United States.
Tom Charging Hawk, a 38-year-old web developer from Boston, flew into O’Hare on Monday on his way to a conference. Before leaving a secure area to get to the baggage claim, he said, he walked past a handful of ICE agents standing near an exit. He did not see them interacting with travelers, but their presence unnerved him.
“I’m rattled by the whole thing,” Mr. Charging Hawk said, adding that he knew of people who had opted out of the conference “because of ICE and security weirdness.”
Other airports where ICE personnel, including agents from Homeland Security Investigations, were expected to work at as of Sunday night included George Bush airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers and Philadelphia International Airport, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.
Trump administration officials have cast the ICE operation largely as one to help airports manage their labyrinthine security lines. Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said on Sunday that the agents would support security officials whose ranks have thinned as thousands have gone without pay during a partial government shutdown.
The Homeland Security Department said in a statement on Sunday night that the deployment was necessary because of the long lines for screening passengers. But it did not give details about what the agents would do.
Tonya Johnson, 46, has worked in the Newark airport for eight years, serving bagels, coffee and pizza in Terminal C. As she watched an ICE patrol pass by her workplace on Monday morning, she was not impressed.
“I don’t what their purpose is,” she said, adding, “They’re just standing there, and they’re in the way.”
Airports were under extra strain on Monday because of ground stops in the New York City area. One was issued at LaGuardia Airport, in Queens, after a regional jet collided with fire truck while landing there on Sunday, killing the plane’s two pilots and injuring dozens. Flights will not resume there until at least 2 p.m. Eastern time.
And a temporary ground stop was issued, and then lifted, on Monday morning at Newark airport for an apparently unrelated reason, according to the Federal Aviation Administration: reports of a burning smell from an elevator in an air-traffic control tower.
Reporting was contributed by Mark Bonamo from Newark, Robert Chiarito from Chicago and Sean Keenan from Atlanta.
Jacey Fortin covers a wide range of subjects for The Times, including extreme weather, court cases and state politics across the country.
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