ICE agents deployed to U.S. airports as DHS funding lapse leaves TSA workers without pay

# ICE at the Checkpoint: How a Funding Lapse Put Immigration Agents in Airport Security Lanes

*Immigration agents are now staffing airport security checkpoints while TSA workers go without pay — and the country's second-highest official has some explaining to do about his own voting record.*

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Here is the tension at the center of this story: The Trump administration deployed federal immigration enforcement agents to U.S. airports to fill gaps left by unpaid TSA workers — a funding crisis that Vice President JD Vance, as recently as 2024, helped engineer through his own Senate votes.

## What Happened

Congress failed to renew Department of Homeland Security funding before a deadline in late March 2026, triggering a partial government shutdown that left TSA agents, Secret Service personnel, and Coast Guard members working without paychecks, [according to NPR](https://www.npr.org/2026/03/23/g-s1-114792/up-first-newsletter-trump-iran-strait-of-hormuz-dhs-funding-tsa-ice-agents-immigration).

In response, the Trump administration ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — whose primary mandate is immigration enforcement, not passenger screening — to assist with airport security operations. [PBS NewsHour reported](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/federal-immigration-agents-deployed-to-atlanta-airport-during-partial-shutdown) that agents were deployed to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, one of the busiest travel hubs in the world. A second [PBS NewsHour report](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/federal-immigration-agents-sent-to-u-s-airports-to-support-security-during-budget-impasse) confirmed the deployment extended to multiple U.S. airports during the budget impasse.

The move has drawn concerns from travelers and aviation observers about whether immigration agents — trained in a fundamentally different enforcement role — are equipped to manage the specific demands of passenger security screening.

## The LaGuardia Collision

This situation is unfolding against a particularly somber backdrop. A collision at LaGuardia Airport between an Air Canada jet and a fire truck resulted in the deaths of both the pilot and co-pilot, [the BBC reported](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cede0qyvqz3o). The crash is under investigation, and no direct operational link to the staffing situation has been established. However, the timing has intensified scrutiny of conditions at U.S. airports during the funding lapse.

> **Note:** A causal connection between the LaGuardia collision and the DHS funding lapse has not been confirmed. These are concurrent events. Readers should treat them as separate stories sharing a backdrop, not as cause and effect.

## The Vance Record

This is where the story becomes a document-driven accountability question.

From September 2023 through February 2024, then-Senator JD Vance voted **four times** to block continuing resolutions that would have kept the federal government funded. Those votes were part of a broader hardline strategy by a faction of Senate Republicans to use funding deadlines as political leverage — the same tactic that forces situations like the current one.

Now, standing at the White House as Vice President, Vance has said publicly: *"You don't shut the government down. You don't use your policy disagreements as leverage to not pay our troops and not have essential services."*

The statement is not sourced to a single verified transcript at publication time, and **readers should treat the precise quote as attributed but requiring independent verification**. What is part of the Senate's public voting record, however, are Vance's four votes against continuing resolutions during that period — votes that, by the logic of his own current statement, were attempts to use policy disagreements as leverage not to pay essential services.

## Confirmed vs. Unconfirmed

**Confirmed:** - DHS funding lapsed, leaving TSA, Secret Service, and Coast Guard workers without pay *(NPR)* - ICE agents were deployed to U.S. airports including Atlanta to assist with security *(PBS NewsHour, two separate reports)* - A collision at LaGuardia between an Air Canada aircraft and a fire truck killed the pilot and co-pilot *(BBC)*

**Unconfirmed / Requires Manual Review:** - The precise wording of Vance's White House statement - The specific number and dates of Vance's Senate votes against continuing resolutions (characterized here as four votes; this should be cross-referenced against official Senate roll call records) - Whether wait times at affected airports increased materially during the deployment - Any operational connection between LaGuardia staffing conditions and the collision

## What to Watch

- **Senate vote records:** Official roll call archives will confirm or adjust the characterization of Vance's shutdown votes. That verification matters before this framing is treated as settled fact. - **TSA workforce reporting:** How long agents work without pay before either a funding resolution or a visible attrition effect is a key data point for the next week. - **ICE deployment scope:** Whether the airport deployment expands beyond Atlanta and a handful of other airports — and whether any incident occurs during ICE-assisted screening — will shape the political and legal fallout. - **LaGuardia investigation:** The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary findings will clarify whether operational factors at the airport played any role in the collision. - **Congressional action:** Watch for emergency continuing resolution votes and whether Republican leadership frames any compromise differently than the 2023–2024 shutdown fights.

--- *Epoch Reckoning publishes accountability reporting grounded in primary sources. Where facts could not be independently verified at publication time, they are labeled as unconfirmed. Corrections and source additions are welcomed.*