Many travelers are grateful for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers assisting the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as Congress fails to reach an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Videos across social media show ICE agents assisting with crowd control and in other ways, such as handing out bottles of water to weary travelers amid the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Many videos show travelers expressing gratitude for ICE’s assistance.
“They’re here doing a job just like TSA is, and bless their hearts,” one traveler in Atlanta said.
Several other videos show “almost no lines” at a checkpoint in Atlanta, one day after ICE agents were deployed to over a dozen airports across the country.
A CNN reporter on the scene also confirmed that many travelers described the ICE agents as “very pleasant,” contrary to the beliefs of many leftists who have demonized the agents, resulting in an eruption of protests over the past several months.
Trump border czar Tom Homan confirmed on Sunday that ICE agents would be deployed to assist amid TSA worker call-outs.
“Yes. And, I’m currently working on the plan now, execution. I’m working with the director of ICE and the administrator of TSA, the acting administrator. So we’ll put together a plan today and will execute tomorrow,” Homan said on CNN, previewing the plan.
“ICE agents receive a high level of training,” he continued. “ICE agents are assigned at many airports across the country already. They do a lot of investigation, criminal investigations of smuggling at airports.”
He added, “But, you know, there’s, I mean, we’ve got TSA agents covering exits, you know, people that enter through the exits certainly, highly trained ICE law enforcement officers can cover an exit.”
Various reports show that the plan seems to be working, with significantly shorter lines at key airports across the country.
On Monday, TSA worker call-outs exceeded 3,200 nationwide, comprising 10.93 percent of the workforce.
