White House Border Czar Tom Homan confirmed Sunday that the United States will deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents starting tomorrow, Monday, March 23, to relieve the workload of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), whose employees have not been paid since February.
In an interview with CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ Homan said the move will help the TSA “fulfill its mission and get the American public through airports as quickly as possible, while adhering to all security standards and protocols.”
ICE agents will be at airports by March 2026
🚨 WOW! Tom Homan just MIC DROPPED CNN’s “gotcha”.
“If you have a plan to have ICE at airports in 24H, how well thought out could it possibly be?!”
HOMAN: “How much of a PLAN does it mean to guard an exit to make sure no one comes through that exit?!”🤣🔥pic.twitter.com/Gz203DqMcH
– Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 22, 2026
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to task Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with this task if Democrats do not approve funding for the TSA, whose officials have not been paid since February because of the Democratic boycott against the president’s aggressive immigration policy.
In a second message posted on his Truth Social network, the Republican assured that he has already instructed ICE to show up at airports tomorrow, Monday: “I look forward to the arrival of ICE on Monday, and I’ve already told them: ‘Get ready,'” he wrote.
Homan said Sunday that the agents will help the TSA “do its job in areas that don’t require specialized knowledge.”
“There are roles we can play to free up TSA agents from non-essential duties, such as guarding an exit, so they can get back to the scanning machines and get people through faster,” he explained.
The Senate on Friday rejected, for the fifth time since February, funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been in a partial shutdown for five weeks and on which TSA and immigration agencies depend.
The suspension of TSA workers’ paychecks has led many to take leave or resign, causing long queues at major U.S. airports such as Atlanta, New York’s JFK and New Orleans.
The Democrats’ refusal to fund DHS originated after two Minneapolis citizens were shot and killed by federal agents in January as part of the massive immigration raids activated by the Trump administration in the state of Minnesota.
Filed under: ICE airports March 2026
With information from EFE
