Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were set to be at 14 major U.S. airports on Monday, White House border czar Tom Homan said, CNN reported.
This comes as there are few signs lawmakers will reach an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, ahead of a scheduled holiday break.
The result is increased absenteeism among TSA officers, which has contributed to long lines and travel disruptions at major airports across the country.
A senior administration official told the Washington Examiner on Monday that ICE employees will focus on maintaining "more of a presence" at airport security checkpoints, acting more as background support due to their lack of training to carry out TSA responsibilities.
"They may assist with documents. But not working machines. Helping with lines. Crowd control. Exits. etc," the official wrote in a text message.
Another official from ICE told the Examiner that ICE personnel from the agency's Enforcement and Removal Operations arm and Homeland Security Investigations arm will be on site at airports. Employees will be in their ICE uniforms.
CNN listed the airports with ICE agents as O'Hare in Chicago, Hopkins in Cleveland, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, William P. Hobby in Houston, John F. Kennedy in New York, LaGuardia in New York, Louis Armstrong in New Orleans, Luis Munoz Marin in San Juan, Liberty in Newark, Sky Harbor in Phoenix, Southwest Florida in Fort Myers, George Bush in Houston, and the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh international airports.
LaGuardia Airport remained closed after an Air Canada plane collided with a fire truck on the runway Sunday night.
The list is subject to change, and different plans have been made for how to use agents at each airport, a source told CNN.
For example, some ICE agents may monitor lines of passengers while others help with bins.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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