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Welcome to The Logoff: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are being deployed to US airports as Homeland Security funding continues.
What is happening? Over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced his plan to send ICE agents to major US airports, starting Monday, to deal with security bottlenecks and delays. Agents have reportedly been deployed near 14 airports beginning of the week, including Newark, New Jersey; Chicago O’Hare; and Atlanta.
ICE agents are unlikely to directly assist with lines of inquiry, according to Trump’s “border kingpin” Tom Homan. who told CNN that agents could “make sure people don’t go past those exits, enter the airport through the exits and things like that,” in hopes of freeing up TSA agents to screen passengers.
As of Monday, some airports continued to report hours-long security lines. Immigration agents too arrest at least one person at the San Francisco airport on Sunday.
What is the context? Much of the Department of Homeland Security is closed, but ICE and CBP — flush with money from Trump’s 2025 reconciliation package — are still operating.
So does the TSA, whose employees are considered essential. But unlike ICE, TSA officers are unpaid — and as the shutdown continues, more and more are being paid. call to the sick or stop automatically.
How does this end? In order to get the TSA back up and running and airport delays back to normal, Congress needs to pass a bill to fund the agency (and the rest of DHS). Funding ended last month after lawmakers reached an impasse over new accountability measures for ICE.
It is not clear when that will happen, like Trump is reportedly rejected Republicans plan to fund the rest of DHS — including the TSA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency — while leaving ICE by the wayside for the time being.
And so, it’s time to leave…
I am hereby informed that today is World Bear Day, which we here at The Logoff enthusiastically support. To celebrate, here’s a fun article from Scientific American: Why do bears have a friendly shape?
As always, thanks for reading, have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
