Is ICE at Philadelphia airport? What Trump, DHS won’t say about plans
Weeks into a partial government shutdown that has resulted in closed terminal checkpoints, long wait lines for airport travelers and numerous furloughed Department of Homeland Security employees, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been sent by U.S. President Donald Trump to assist major airports in the country.
But DHS and the Trump Administration have remained tight-lipped about operational plans for ICE at airports near you.
Is ICE at Philadelphia International Airport? Did DHS confirm ICE in Philly?
On Tuesday morning, multiple Philadelphia-based media outlets reported ICE sightings at the Philadelphia International Airport, including NBC10 and 6ABC.
When asked directly, however, representatives of DHS and TSA declined to confirm any ICE whereabouts for safety purposes.
“For operational security reasons, we are not going to confirm the locations of our officers,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Lauren Bis, said in a statement issued to this publication.
Bis also blamed the Democrats for the partial shutdown that has been influencing travel in the U.S.:
“While the Democrats continue to put the safety, dependability, and ease of our air travel at risk, President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, that are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted,” Bis said.
Though Philadelphia International Airport has addressed its terminal closures via social media, it has yet comment on ICE agents supplementing security.
When asked for official confirmation, the airport’s Public Affairs Manager, Heather Redfern, deferred to TSA and DHS.
Which airports will ICE be at?
In response to the TSA wait times reported across the country as the shutdown persists, President Donald Trump announced that he would be sending ICE agents to aid airport security checkpoints beginning March 23.
According to reporting from USA TODAY, Philadelphia International Airport is one of the 13 airports where ICE agents were expected to be deployed.
The list, originally published by CNN, included:
- Chicago-O’Hare International Airport
- Cleveland Hopkins International Airport
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
- Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport
- John F. Kennedy International Airport
- LaGuardia Airport
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
- Luis Munoz Marin International Airport
- Newark Liberty International Airport
- Philadelphia International Airport
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
- Pittsburgh International Airport
- Southwest Florida International Airport
What is ICE doing at airports? Can ICE agents do TSA’s job?
According to border czar Tom Homan for CNN’s “State of the Union,” ICE agents deployed to airports across the country are not expected to run security imaging machines, though they could help TSA in other ways.
“I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine, because they’re not trained in that, but there are certain parts of security that TSA’s doing and we can move them off those jobs and put them in the specialized jobs and help move those lines,” he said on March 22.
These jobs include support roles like non-screening tasks and exit security he said.
Kaitlyn McCormick is a Philadelphia-based journalist.
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