TSA security lines at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston last week.Lekan Oyekanmi/AP
The DHS shutdown battle heated up on Saturday as President Donald Trump threatened to send “brilliant and patriotic” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel to the nation’s airports to do security and relieve TSA workers, who are starting to rebel after going without pay since February 14.
The shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security began on midnight that day, as Democrats refused to provide more funds until Republicans agree to various reforms related to deployment, training, and management of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. The intrusive and violent conduct of federal agents in Minneapolis—where they killed two US citizens and assaulted and detained many more—fueled widespread outrage and contributed to the recent ouster of former Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem.
TSA officers require two to three weeks of academy training and months of on-the-job training. ICE agents would have none of that.
Democratic lawmakers also seek to curtail ICE’s rampant use of surveillance technology and ensure the rights of states and lawmakers to investigate alleged human rights abuses at the immigrant detention centers the administration has set up.
The funding impasse does not directly affect ICE, which the Republican-controlled Congress has bankrolled at unheard-of levels, but the shutdown has frozen other DHS activities, including the processing of paychecks for TSA staff, who are considered essential employees.
It is a felony offense for federal workers to go on strike, but after more than a month without pay, a fair number of TSA personnel have been missing days, calling in sick, and seeking jobs elsewhere. This has created nightmarish security lines at airports, putting pressure on both parties to make a deal. It’s been quite the a war of words.
Nobody wants long lines, in any case. Trump’s solution? Unleash the hounds! The same ones whose aggressive, legally dubious tactics and disrespect for the public helped to inspire this mess in the first place. Naturally, Trump couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to take a shot at his latest favorite targets: Somali immigrants and arch-nemesis Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
It could indeed be “security like no one has ever seen.” Because if Trump is serious about sending ICE to perform TSA duties, it raises questions as to what, exactly, they would be doing—and their eligibility to perform those tasks. To become a Transportation Security Officer requires two to three weeks of immersive academy training, followed by months of on-the-job training.
ICE agents are poorly trained even for their own duties (ditto CBP), and that, together with government officials publicly signaling that agents are above the law, has been a recipe for disaster.
Of course, ICE agents wouldn’t have to complete TSA academy training if they were merely serving in the role of Security Support Assistants. These are the people who manage lines and do “bin control,” typically as they await the results of a background check so they can move on with their training—one Redditor called them “glorified bin pushers.”
But even then, the ICE personnel may not qualify. “TSOs and SSAs spend a lot of time interfacing with the public and providing customer service,” the TSA careers website notes.
One key qualification: “You’re a people person.”
