The government of President of the United States, Donald Trump, decided to send immigration service agents to the country’s airports this Monday (23) to reinforce security and help control queues after problems caused by the partial halt in public funding to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The measure was confirmed by White House officials and DHS itself, who state that the objective of the measure is to reduce delays and avoid failures and errors at immigration inspection points at American airports.
According to the White House “border czar”, Tom Homan, agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were deployed to at least 14 US airports. These include Chicago O’Hare, John F. Kennedy and Newark, in the New York region, as well as airports in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Southwest Florida.
According to DSH, the agents were sent because the halt in public funding for the department directly affected the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), responsible for inspecting passengers.
As Homan explained, immigration agents are not replacing services normally performed by TSA employees, but can perform tasks that do not require technical training, such as crowd control, organizing queues and guarding access areas.
“We are there to help the American people get through lines that are taking hours because the government has been shut down,” he said.
According to data released by DHS, more than 400 TSA agents have left their positions since the start of the public funding shutdown, while thousands have missed work because they were not receiving pay. The department’s interim assistant secretary for communications, Lauren Bis, stated that many employees are no longer able to pay for fuel, food and household bills, which has led to an increase in absences.
The mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens, from the Democratic Party, stated that he was informed by federal authorities that the purpose of sending ICE agents to airports is not to carry out immigration inspection in these locations, as party members have been claiming, but rather to provide support for security operations and the organization of queues at the terminals.
The Senate again rejected last week a project to release public resources to DHS, which maintains the department’s partial shutdown and directly affects the TSA and immigration agencies.
