TSA lines stretch for hours as Trump deploys ICE agents to US airports | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Security lines were tightened for hours at US airports on Monday, when free Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening officers reportedly refused to show up for duty and ICE agents deployed by Donald Trump were seen in a dozen cities.

The president claimed over the weekend that immigration agents could help manage long lines, but there was little immediate impact from their presence in Atlanta. Meanwhile, airport staff were trying to get creative as they tried to corral thousands of disgruntled passengers.

Lines at Hartsfield Jackson international airport spilled out of the screening area, snaking in and out of the waiting area and baggage claim area, and were in a loop on the sidewalk by 9 a.m. People hoping to catch an early morning flight had been lining up since sunrise.

Screeners at TSA remain unpaid, while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains partially closed. The budget stalemate in Washington, D.C., stems from Democratic lawmakers’ demands to hold immigration enforcement officials accountable after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and alarmist practices of warrantless detention and military raids.

TSA agents missed his second paycheck on Friday. Many don’t show up for work and hundreds don’t show up for work reportedly resigned.

“Pay these people!” President and dean of Phillips Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Dr. Paul Brown shouted after waiting an hour for a scan before flying to Indianapolis on Monday. “Explain to me that congressmen regularly get their salaries on time, no problem. But these people who work for $40,000 a year, you’re holding them back because of some policies.”

Brown scoffed at the suggestion that ICE agents at airports would help. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, referring to the budget impasse as a result of his behavior on the field. “They are part of the problem.”

According to CNN, Trump on Monday deployed ICE agents to assist with passenger screening in 11 cities with busy airports; these include Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Phoenix, Cleveland, Ft Myers, New Orleans and the New York City area’s three major airports, JFK, Newark and LaGuardia, where a plane crashed into a truck this morning, killing two pilots.

The fatal accident caused the airport to close and the effects spread throughout the system.

“It’s complete chaos,” said Tom Healey of Alpharetta, Georgia, who was trying to fly from Atlanta to Louisville. By 8am he had been waiting in line for three hours; His flight was scheduled to be around 9 p.m. “Look at what happened at LaGuardia,” he said. “My wife is supposed to fly from there. She was supposed to fly from LaGuardia today.”

Karan Ghura was in the queue since 4 am. He had already missed his 9:30 a.m. flight to Phoenix and was again lined up to take a different flight to the Bay Area.

“The funny thing is, when I enter my flight information, Clear tells you what time you should arrive. They told me to leave at 4 o’clock. It is impossible for me to arrive with all this traffic and leave at 4 and leave at 6 o’clock.”

The net service, which allowed passengers to bypass security lines, was shut down. A representative in Atlanta attributed this to staffing shortages.

“Clear remains open and ready to serve our members for PreCheck passengers in the main terminal and all passengers in the international terminal,” said Kyle McLaughlin, Clear vice president of aviation. “Due to circumstances beyond our control, airport conditions are changing rapidly and may impact service at some of our locations.”

Scanning times varied greatly depending on the airport and differences between morning peak and noon travel. LaGuardia did not reopen until 2 p.m. after the crash, and the closure affected connections across the country. In Houston, the joke that driving to Austin might be faster than flying there is taken seriously, given screening lines of three to four hours at peak and a two-and-a-half-hour commute.

But Chicago’s wait times seem negligible. While three screening stations have been closed for days in Philadelphia, wait times at the airport are reportedly under 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, dozens of ICE agents were seen without masks in Atlanta terminals. Trump said Monday morning that agents are now “able to arrest illegal individuals coming into the country. This is very fertile ground.” But Trump added that they were really there to help.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said: “According to federal officials, these personnel will be assigned to support operational needs directed by the Transportation Security Administration, including line management and crowd control at domestic terminals. Federal officials have stated that this assignment is not for the purpose of conducting immigration enforcement activities.”

Their presence has met with political condemnation from critics of the administration.

“Trump’s secret police are now stationed at airport checkpoints,” said NAACP national president Derrick Johnson. “They are undertrained, armed, and trained to profile people based on race and accent. What could go wrong? We’ve seen this movie before. Remember that Trump thwarted an offer from his friends in Congress to pay TSA agents. This is a deliberate decision, not a Band-Aid for a cut in funding.”

Tamika West, who tried to fly to Fort Lauderdale in Florida on Monday, said she bought a ticket for a new flight but could not get through the lines quickly because her Clear membership would not work. A half-dozen ICE agents stood in a group behind him, watching the crowd.

“So how do they help?” he asked. “How do they help when all the bag carriers and baggage claim and stuff are going around the queue? How do they help? They don’t help. They make it worse.”

Tina Deschler was flying from Atlanta to Milwaukee on Monday afternoon. It took him approximately an hour and forty minutes to complete the screening, and he welcomed ICE’s presence at the airport.

“It’s probably important for them to be here,” he said, noting their potential to improve airport security. “Because people are standing in these lines for two, three, four hours and it can get a little chaotic. I hope they can put out the fire.”

Donta Knight was flying to Kansas City at the same time and was less confident in ICE’s ability to help.

“I don’t see the point of this,” he said. The answer, he added, is to pay workers. “So they will come to work and make this go easier and smoother for all of us.”

Video released amid concerns about ICE agents’ presence at airports viral The story of a fight between a woman and two federal immigration agents at San Francisco international airport on Sunday. But local authorities on Monday said the encounter did not stem from an arrest at the airport and that the agents involved were transporting the woman and a child on an outgoing plane when the incident occurred. reported.

“We believe this is an isolated incident and have no reason to suspect broader enforcement action at the airport,” facility spokesman Doug Yakel said in a statement reported by the Chronicle.