Why U.S. airports face chaos - and what Trump's decision to send ICE has to do with it

Passengers have been forming long lines to go through security procedures at several U.S. airports
EPA via BBC
In recent weeks, this scene has become common at several of the largest U.S. airports: extremely long lines of passengers trying to get through security to get to their boarding gates.
In the most critical moments, some passengers have reported spending up to four hours in Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening areas at airports in Atlanta, Houston, New York, Denver, New Orleans and South Florida.
The situation has worsened as the TSA has suffered a significant reduction in staffing due to a lack of federal funding for payroll, resulting from the lack of an agreement in Congress to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which administers the TSA.
In February, Democratic lawmakers blocked the DHS budget in protest against the Trump administration's anti-immigrant raids in previous months.
Many TSA employees have been on strike ever since due to lack of payment.
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Faced with the worsening situation, Trump said on Sunday (22) that he will send agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to "help" with the security of the terminals, something that is not part of the agents' duties and for which they have no training.
The union that represents TSA agents criticized the measure, saying that their employees "deserve to be paid, and not replaced by armed, untrained agents."
About 170 million passengers travel during this time of year, which is spring break in the US.
Hundreds of agents absent
New York's La Guardia airport is among those most affected by the absence of TSA agents
Getty Images via BBC
The lack of a DHS funding agreement has forced TSA agents to work without pay for more than a month, which caused an increase in the number of agents missing work.
At large airports, such as New York, Atlanta and Houston, employee absence reached 40%.
But at other smaller airports, without many TSA agents, the absence of employees could threaten the entire terminal operation in the coming days.
In addition, more than 400 employees have resigned since mid-February, when Congress voted on the budget that left DHS without funding, according to the House White.
TSA searches passengers and luggage for dangerous items. Airports have been recommending that passengers arrive for their trips more than three hours in advance.
In some terminals, there were lines that reached outside the airport.
"These long security lines have been frustrating. It's been devastating, to say the least," passenger Greta Colley at Atlanta airport told Reuters news agency. "It's exhausting having to add more time to travel."
When talking about the situation at the airports, Trump said in a message on Truth Social that "on Monday ICE will go to the airports to help our wonderful TSA agents who remain in their posts."
His comment came a day after the president criticized Democrats who refused to vote in favor of the DHS budget.
"I will send our brilliant and patriotic ICE agents to the airports, where they will take charge of security like no one has ever seen before," said Trump.
However, ICE director Tom Homan assured in an interview with CNN that his agents will not directly participate in passenger control. They will be used to relieve other TSA agents from their security duties.
This way, TSA agents trained to deal with passengers will be able to "dedicate themselves to controlling and reducing these lines" at airports.
Homan said he continues to work with both agencies to iron out the final details, including how many agents will participate in this operation, and said the plan would be ready before Monday.
The BBC has contacted DHS and ICE about the plans, but has not received a response.
The airport Hartsfield-Jackson, from Atlanta, was also greatly affected by the situation
Getty Images via BBC
Rejection of ICE
In light of the Trump administration's latest announcement, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents TSA workers, rejected the use of ICE agents at airports.
"Our TSA members are helping to work every day, without pay, because they believe in the mission of keeping passengers safe," said the organization's president, Everett Kelley.
"They deserve to be paid, not exchanged for armed and untrained agents who have already demonstrated that they can be dangerous," Kelley said in a statement.
The minority leader in the House of Representatives, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, told CNN that the use of ICE agents "is the last thing the American people need."
"These are people who, for the most part, have no training to even perform the functions they currently perform, much less to be assigned to close-contact, highly sensitive situations at airports across the country," Jeffries said.
Democrats demanded ICE reforms after federal agents caused the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, Minneapolis residents protesting the Trump administration's immigration policy in January.
Democrats called on DHS to ban ICE agents from covering their faces. And they also ask that agents clearly identify themselves when carrying out operations against immigrants and that the rules for obtaining court orders against immigrants be made more difficult.
But congressmen have not yet reached an agreement on the impasse. A bill that would fund DHS and TSA agent salaries at airports failed to advance in the Senate on Friday.
With information from BBC News' Grace Eliza Goodwin and Tom Bennet.

Source: G1