ICE officers could remain at airports after TSA workers are paid : NPR
Travelers wait in long security screening lines at George Bush Intercontinental Airport Friday, March 27, 2026, in Houston.
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David J. Phillip/AP
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could remain at U.S. airports even after Transportation Security Administration employees receive their paychecks, according to White House border official Tom Homan.
Asked if ICE agents would leave airports once TSA workers start receiving their paychecks again, Homan said Sunday “we’ll see.”
“It depends on how many TSA agents come back to work [and] how many TSA agents actually quit and have no plan [of] I’m coming back to work,” Homan told CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper.
Homan also said he spoke with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, adding that there is a plan for TSA workers to be paid “hopefully by tomorrow or Tuesday.”
“It’s good news…because these TSA agents are in trouble. They can’t feed their families or pay their rent,” Homan told Tapper.
NPR reached out to DHS for additional comment on when workers would be paid, but the department did not respond. A DHS social media post Friday indicated that TSA had begun the process of paying its workforce and that paychecks could arrive as early as Monday. The announcement came after President Trump signed a memo directing that workers be paid from existing funds, even though Congress did not allocate the money amid an impasse over passing legislation to fund DHS. It remains unclear where the money to fund salaries would come from, as NPR previously reported.
It’s been a week since the president ordered ICE to send agents to airports across the country to help the TSA provide security as the DHS shutdown entered its sixth week.
ICE agents assisted TSA officers by “verifying identity” and “closing other security gaps,” allowing remaining TSA employees to focus on tasks that require more training, such as monitoring machines that screen baggage, according to Homan.
About 50,000 transportation security officers have been forced to continue working without pay, missing multiple paychecks since disagreements in Congress led to the shutdown of DHS. More than 480 TSA employees have resigned, according to Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill. She told lawmakers at a hearing last Wednesday that worker absences were as high as 40% at some airports. This led to long wait times for passengers at security checkpoints.
Homan says those lines have already gotten shorter.
“I was in Houston – the lines were down about half. We sent additional officers to Baltimore yesterday to reduce those lines,” Homan told CNN.
A notice posted Sunday afternoon on the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport web page said wait times had improved since Saturday but remained longer than normal. At Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, wait times for security checks were less than two hours Sunday. But the airport warned travelers that “TSA lines could exceed four hours.”
As for when permanent funding for DHS can be achieved, that remains unclear. Negotiations in Congress remain stalled as lawmakers left Washington for a planned recess. The Senate returns on April 13. The House returns on April 14.
