On Monday, March 23rd, hundreds of ICE agents were deployed to 14 airports around the country to assist with Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages. Numerous TSA agents have called out of work in different airports due to the fact that they haven’t been paid since mid February, a direct result of the partial government shutdown. The Department of Homeland Security is temporarily shutdown due to the controversy around interior immigration enforcement methods (Wolfe, CNN).
Across the country, travel delays and extremely long wait times in airports have been on the rise. Passengers on flights departing from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have been waiting in up to three hour lines, and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport has been experiencing wait times as long as four hours.
Westborough High School junior Amogh Prakash had a tough experience at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport on March 22nd. Due to the long lines, Prakash got to the airport at 4:45pm for an 8:30pm flight. Unfortunately, security took about four and a half hours, causing Prakash to miss his flight. Prakash stated, “there were people yelling at TSA workers and the workers told us the next day would be just as bad.” This left Prakash and his family stranded in the airport. When they checked TSA line times the next day, March 23rd, the lines were an estimated nine hours. This was the day ICE agents were sent to assist TSA agents. Instead of going back to the Atlanta airport, Prakash went to the Charlotte Douglas airport and luckily “security took less than 90 seconds.”
The current administration believes that it is in the citizens best interest and for efficiency within airports to station ICE agents in airports during this chaotic time. There has been reported fear from the public about whether or not ICE agents will be focusing on deporting people and checking for illegal immigrants in these airports they have been assigned to. When CNN news reporters asked Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bis about the ICE agent’s role in airports, she stated that, “the more support we have available, the more efficiently TSA can focus on their highly specialized screening roles to efficiently get airport security lines moving faster.” Many airports have had no choice but to cut down the amount of security checkpoints and screenings because of the lack of TSA agents showing up for work. White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN that “We’re simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don’t need their specialized expertise, such as screening through the X-ray machine”. In airports, ICE agents will be concentrating on assisting TSA agents, and helping to run things more smoothly, focusing less on their typical role of detaining undocumented immigrants.
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