President Donald Trump’s move to send immigration agents into airports has collided with an already chaotic travel week, as a partial government shutdown stretches into its sixth week.  For weeks, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers have been expected to show up for work despite not being paid.

On Saturday, half of the nation’s busiest airports had more than a third of their agents call out sick, CNN reports. Hours-long security lines and last‑minute sick calls have become the new norm for workers during the spring break season, which is one of the busiest travel periods of the year. 

Now the Department of Homeland Security says hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will be deployed on Monday to major airports to “assist” TSA workers—a step the White House argues is needed to keep passengers moving and plane schedules running on time. 

ICE agents, who are still being paid, are expected to cover exits and handle crowd control, allowing TSA officers to focus on screening people and their bags. CNN reports that Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport has already been warned to expect ICE on the ground, after security wait times there stretched to hours and lines wrapped multiple times over in some terminals. 

Trump has framed the airport plan as a way to pressure Democrats into backing his approach to immigration and funding the Homeland Security Department, which includes TSA and ICE. 

Democrats want tighter rules on how immigration enforcement works and accuse Trump of holding both airport workers and travelers “hostage” to a political fight. On social media and in interviews, the president has repeatedly blamed Democrats for unpaid screeners and the grinding delays at checkpoints.

For travelers, the impact is immediate: missed connections, hours in line, and more anxiety about who is actually watching security as politics play out. 

Local officials in cities like Atlanta are trying to reassure residents that ICE’s presence inside terminals will not mean on‑the‑spot immigration crackdowns, but details on how agents will operate remain thin.