Transportation Secretary Duffy says ICE agents are trained and can assist TSA at airports

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News

March 22, 2026, 11:34 AM


Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are trained and can assist with airport security, following President Donald Trump's announcement that ICE would be sent to airports starting Monday.

Duffy added that sending in ICE takes away possible leverage for Democrats. "Democrats want to see long lines at airports as leverage," Duffy told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl. "President Trump's trying to take that leverage away and not make the American people suffer."

Democrats blocked funding for DHS to push for policy reforms to ICE, including requiring agents to not wear face masks, wear body cameras and have warrants signed by a judge before entering a home or business. Republicans have so far rejected those proposals.

Read more: https://abcnews.com/Politics/transportation-secretary-duffy-ice-agents-trained-assist-tsa/story?id=131300873

---

Why is the Transportation Secretary commenting on an agency that is under DHS? Last I heard, that function was REMOVED from DOT and placed under the newly-formed DHS almost 25 years ago -

H.R.5005 - Homeland Security Act of 2002

Where is the "acting" head of DHS or even the acting head of TSA (there is one - Ha Nguyen McNeill)? Maybe they are afraid that if she set foot anywhere that ICE would immediately arrest her for being Vietnamese, throw her in a concentration camp, and deport her back to Vietnam (regardless of whether she was a citizen or not)?

The GOP can end this at any time. They control the House, Senate, and the Presidency.

[Klarkashton]

1. Putting a bunch of armed masked proud boy chuds at the airport

Is a shit idea.

They all ought to be fired.

[BidenRocks]

2. You have too much shampoo!

Slammed to the deck and gang arrested.

Next?

Will they show up in full battle rattle, armed with rifles and chemical spray?
We know what chemical spray does to an airport.

Another epic chumpian disaster. Someone will die or be picked up for immigration.

[2na fisherman]

3. Will They Steal Your Luggage?

It may sound like a great gig for the ICE thugs to be able to steal your stuff with impunity. Your smart phone or any of your possessions they want will be deemed suspicious or contraband and taken by them. And there will be nothing you can do about it. Because the fox is in charge of the henhouse.

[Multichromatic]

4. NO, Just NO... we don't need Nazis running the airport!

[paleotn]

7. They're not running the airport.....

They're moving the empty bins back to the front of the TSA line. That about all they're "trained" to do. And that's NOT going to speed up TSA lines.

[paleotn]

5. Even if they were "trained", which they're not, there aren't enough of them to make any difference.

Not and maintain immigration enforcement. There's over 50K TSA workers nationwide. Only ~20K ICE goobers total. Apparently immigration enforcement isn't as important as we've been led to believe? Does Gruppenführer Miller know about this? And where's Elmo and his offer to pay TSA folks for lost wages? If Elmo is picking up the tab, then what's the need to ICE goobers?

Donnie had a stupid, completely unworkable idea and his "yes, mein furhrer!" people are force implementing it no matter how stupid it is. And Elmo is just blurting out bullshit he never intended to do. Same shit, different day.

[Hey Joe]

6. Hopefully, most folks will put off flying for a while

And the airlines will lose a shit ton of money as people avoid flying because airports are filthy with ICEholes harassing passengers.
Fuck them all!

[Jimi du Ranty]

8. Won't they have to learn how to read first?

Instead of just knowing their colors?

[City Lights]

9. Hard pass. Way to kill the airline industry, morons! nt

[travelingthrulife]

13. They only want wealthy people flying like it used to be.

[Buddyzbuddy]

10. Yes, ICE agents are trained

to violate Constitutional rights, kill innocent civilians, sexually assault women, abuse children and assaulting restrained men.

Hell, why not just use convicts from the local prisons, You can pay them with time off for good behavior.. You'll run the same risks but at least prisoners have a code and rules they live by. Rule out the "chomos" and rapists and the women and children should be safe. At least safer than with ICE agents.

[Katinfl]

11. No way in hell this is going to work out. Just another shitshow.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. MaddowBlog-5 unavoidable questions about Trump deploying ICE agents to airports

My advice for air travelers: Keep showing up extra early at the airport, because ICE agents’ presence probably won’t make a positive difference.

"Are ICE agents trained for this?

ICE agents increasingly lack the necessary training **to be ICE agents,** and they definitely aren’t trained to work as TSA officials..."

www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Rachel Maddow (@maddow.bsky.social) 2026-03-23T18:42:11.125Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/5-unavoidable-questions-about-trumps-plan-to-deploy-ice-agents-to-airports

It’s not exactly a secret that the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security has led to exceedingly long lines at many American airports, but the White House apparently has an idea to help improve matters. MS NOW reported:

President Donald Trump and top administration officials said Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will arrive at the nation’s airports on Monday to handle security at exceedingly long lines driven by a shortage of TSA workers.

‘I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!’ Trump said on Truth Social.

On the surface, it’s likely that many air travelers would welcome the president’s “no more waiting” message, but as the policy advances, a handful of questions hang overhead......

2. What will ICE agents do at airports? This is arguably the most obvious of the questions, but there’s ongoing uncertainty about the answer. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s online announcement “came as a surprise to officials inside ICE and at DHS,” who spent the weekend “trying to figure out how it could work.”

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” White House border czar Tom Homan, who will lead the effort, conceded that the plan was hatched by Trump a day earlier and was “a work in progress” — a problem that became more acute when Homan said ICE agents would not be involved with security screening operations, right around the time Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy appeared on ABC News and said the exact opposite.....

5. Is this all about petty, partisan spite? On Monday morning, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, endorsed the administration’s policy, telling Fox Business, “It’ll drive the Democrats crazy.”

Comer on airports: "I'm glad the president has put ICE in there for a multitude of reasons. It'll drive the Democrats crazy."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-03-23T12:36:14.007Z

With this on-air comment, the congressman said the quiet part loud. This isn’t about solving a problem, this is about playing political games. Or, as MS NOW contributor Philip Bump summarized, “[T]he ICE-at-airports thing is no more complicated than Trump knowing that his opponents hate ICE and thinking that they will therefore be tearing out their hair at this devious gambit.”

My advice for air travelers: Keep showing up extra early at the airport, because there’s no reason to assume that ICE agents’ presence will make a positive difference.

[sakabatou]

14. It's not like they're making wait times hours and hours long.