What’s ahead as Trump threatens to send ICE agents to airports while TSA workers go unpaid during shutdown

By Danya Gainor, CNN

(CNN) — As a shrinking number of Transportation Security Administration agents work to keep hourslong security lines moving despite not being paid, President Donald Trump stepped into the fray Saturday, announcing he will send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports by Monday if Congress doesn’t agree to a plan to end the partial government shutdown.

The Trump administration has not clarified what shape ICE agents’ roles would take at airports since they’re not trained to perform security screenings, and TSA screeners are required to undergo months of training. CNN has reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, which includes TSA, for comment.

“The president can have (ICE agents) come there but I don’t see how that helps us in getting through this time period,” Atlanta TSA officer and union steward George Borek told CNN, reiterating the need for proper training.

Training for ICE agents is simply different from that for TSA officers.

“… They’re cops,” said former TSA officer Shamara Fielder, who left the job during the last government shutdown. “At the end of the day, that’s a whole other type of training. We’re taught to be more so customer friendly. We’re taught to be more so understanding of people’s concerns, law enforcement, that’s not their realm.”

As leaders in both parties try to work out a deal to fund DHS, which includes 61,000 TSA employees who have been working without paychecks, there are few signs the impasse will break soon on Capitol Hill before a scheduled recess.

Trump’s threat comes as hundreds of TSA agents have quit amid the funding lapse, frustrated travelers are facing dizzying security checkpoint lines at some major airports, and officials are warning it could get worse if the standoff between Republicans and Democrats over federal immigration enforcement continues.

By early Sunday, delays were already mounting. At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the TSA wait time stretched beyond two and a half hours, according to a CNN tracker. Meanwhile, travelers at LaGuardia, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental and John F. Kennedy International airports faced waits of more than 40 minutes.

Here’s what lies ahead as chaos and uncertainty continue to cast a shadow over airports across the country:

What’s ahead for travelers

It’s not clear what — if any — relief ICE agents could provide for lengthy security wait times, should the president deploy them. The agents could potentially help in limited roles, like managing lines, directing passengers or helping move people through the checkpoint process, to free up trained TSA officers for critical security functions.

Trump’s announcement also did not specify to which airports ICE agents might be headed.

Bringing in untrained personnel could pose its own problems, Borek said.

“If you bring people in there, they are not trained, they don’t know what they’re looking for, then certainly it could be a problem,” he said. Even trained TSA officers must be recertified after taking medical leave from work for 30 days, Borek said.

And as financial strain and low morale push TSA agents off the job, travelers may expect to see continuing lines weaving through some airports.

For six straight days last week, TSA callout rates hovered above 9% — with a record 10.22% absentee rate set on Monday — as employees continue working without pay.

Impacts for travelers due to the callouts have varied wildly by airport, and unpredictability could continue. More than a third of screeners at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were absent last week, forcing passengers to wait in security lines for up to two hours. On Friday, more than half of TSA workers called out at Houston’s William P. Hobby International Airport.

The Department of Transportation secretary says without a funding bill to end the shutdown, the upcoming week of travel will be worse than ever before.

“These are going to be good days compared to what’s going to happen a week from now as America tries to travel,” Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN’s Jake Tapper Friday. The travel woes amid hourslong security wait times will look like “child’s play,” he said.

If the shutdown doesn’t end by Friday, which marks the next payday for TSA workers, the situation “is going to be a lot worse in the weeks to come” as even fewer officers come to work, Borek said.

“I am actually apologizing to passengers as they come through,” he said.

What’s ahead for airports

If the shortage of TSA workers gets worse, it is possible some airports might close completely.

“It’s not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports, particularly smaller ones, if callout rates go up,” TSA acting Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl said Tuesday.

TSA doesn’t have the power to unilaterally close an airport. But passengers and crews must get screened before they fly, and if there’s no one to do it, travelers will stay grounded.

TSA has not stopped all screening at any airport so far during the shutdown, and experts said the agency will exhaust every other possible option before it does.

Meanwhile, some airports have been largely untouched by the effects of the latest shutdown. At 20 airports in the US, security screening is handled not by TSA but by private companies, and their checkpoints are not seeing long lines.

Airports like San Francisco International, Kansas City International, Orlando Sanford, and 17 smaller facilities participate in TSA’s Screening Partnership Program, which uses contractors at the checkpoints.

What’s ahead for TSA agents

The partial government shutdown is among three lapses in funding resulting in missed pay for TSA staff over the past six months, shortly following the historic 43-day shutdown late last year and a brief lapse in January.

TSA agents working without pay during the busy spring break travel season are poised to continue facing a domino effect of financial hardship behind the scenes, including eviction, empty fridges and overdrawn bank accounts.

They remain caught in the middle as Congress is locked in a stalemate over funding. Tens of thousands of TSA employees are making the choice each day to either stay home or show up to work without pay and usher frustrated travelers through their airports.

DHS said more than 400 officers have chosen a third option since the start of the shutdown: quitting altogether.

Union leaders said some TSA workers chose to quit and many others have taken unscheduled time off since they cannot afford gas or child care needed to go to work.

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CNN’s Aaron Cooper, Alexandra Skores, Holly Yan, Alaa Elassar, Rebekah Riess, Taylor Romine and Hanna Park contributed to this report.