ICE agents sent to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport: Report

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is one of 13 major airports in the U.S. that is expected to see a deployment of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday, according to a report from CNN. The agents will be stationed at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, though it’s not clear exactly what tasks they’ll be performing. Per CNN, “some ICE agents may monitor lines of passengers while others help with bins.”

The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of both ICE and the TSA, is amid a partial shutdown as Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been at odds over its funding. Democrats have refused to sign onto funding for the department until significant reforms are made to ICE after its agents killed two American citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year. ICE is not currently facing a funding shortfall due to a massive funding bill passed last year, but TSA and other divisions of DHS have been affected, and TSA agents have been working without pay for more than a month.

“This pointless, reckless shutdown of our homeland security workforce has caused more than 400 TSA officers to quit and thousands to call out from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent,” acting assistant DHS secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement provided to Phoenix New Times. “While the Democrats continue to put the safety, dependability, and ease of our air travel at risk, President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, that are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted. This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions.” Biz added that “for operational security reasons, we are not going to confirm the locations of our officers.”

DHS spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe did not answer specific questions about the number of officers deployed to Sky Harbor or what specific tasks they would be asked to carry out.

Democrats have indeed refused to back funding bills for DHS, though they have pursued bills to fund TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other non-ICE subdivisions at DHS. Republicans have rejected them.

A ‘dim idea’

In a statement posted to social media, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego — a Democrat, though not usually a bellicose one — blasted the use of ICE at the airport.

“The sole reason for this partial government shutdown is the Trump administration’s reckless and irresponsible deployment of ICE, and its refusal to accept measures of accountability,” Gallego wrote. “The Trump administration would rather provoke than work to keep America safe. With this latest dim idea, it now wants those without proper training to secure our airports. TSA officers are well-trained on the specialized needs of airport security, and leaving this important job to amateurs creates a risk we should not tolerate at American airports.”

The president of the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents TSA agents, also blasted the plan to deploy ICE at airports.

“ICE agents are not trained or certified in aviation security,” wrote AFGE president Everett Kelley. “TSA officers spend months learning to detect explosives, weapons, and threats specifically designed to evade detection at checkpoints — skills that require specialized instruction, hands-on practice, and ongoing recertification. You cannot improvise that. Putting untrained personnel at security checkpoints does not fill a gap. It creates one.”

Staffing issues have led to the closure of two of Sky Harbor’s five TSA checkpoints — B and D, in Terminal Four — though wait times have not been nearly as high as at other major American airports, where travelers have sometimes waited for hours to pass through security. As of 9 a.m. Monday morning, flyers could expect to wait just nine minutes at Terminal 3’s lone checkpoint and 18 and 22 minutes at the checkpoints for A and C gates, respectively.

A Sky Harbor spokesperson pointed New Times to a webpage set up to answer questions about ICE at the airport. The site notes that the airport is federally regulated and that Sky Harbor cannot bar federal agents from accessing it, in this particular situation or any other. It also says that “Airport Police do not receive advance notice of or coordinate immigration enforcement activity,” and shares a link to the state’s Know Your Rights page.