TSA

Have an ICE Flight

Plus: Trump seems to back down from his Iranian ultimatum, Lindsey Graham is eager for another Iwo Jima, and more...

Eric Boehm | 3.23.2026 9:30 AM

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Meet the T-ICE-A. With airport checkpoint lines snarled by a shortage of Transportation Security Administration officers, President Donald Trump says he will deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to…well, actually, it is somewhat unclear what they will be doing.

Border "czar" Tom Homan told CNN on Sunday that the administration was still "working on a plan" to send ICE agents to America's airports.

"Certainly, a highly trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit. Make sure people don't go through those exits, enter an airport through the exits and stuff like that, relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines," Homan explained. "I don't see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine because [they're] not trained in that."

An ICE agent refrains from doing something because of a lack of training and official protocol? That certainly would be news.

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All of this seems unwise. Airport security lines can be high-stress environments at the best of times. Adding some masked, unaccountable, trigger-happy thugs with a reputation for unnecessarily harassing and detaining people while disregarding their legal status and/or constitutional rights seems like a catastrophe just waiting to happen.

On the other hand…

Send 'em. Let's see how travelers like interacting with armed and masked federal police with zero oversight and accountability. Takes ICE off the streets and exposes their misbehavior to even more Americans. pic.twitter.com/0S0xrFO0wG

— The Alex Nowrasteh (@AlexNowrasteh) March 22, 2026

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