ICE agents take a more active role in airport security, but long lines persist ahead of the weekend traveler rush

By Elizabeth Wolfe, Chris Boyette, CNN

(CNN) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived at 14 major US airports four days ago to assist TSA workers as Congress keeps haggling over how to end the partial government shutdown that has driven mounting TSA staffing shortages and the longest security wait times ever.

They’ve been seen directing snaking security lines and passing out water bottles to tired travelers, but it’s unclear whether the ICE agents deployed at President Donald Trump’s request to help manage the chaos have made a significant dent as wait times begin to tick up again as the weekend nears.

ICE agents have started verifying travelers’ IDs at some airports, DHS confirmed Wednesday. They have also been guarding entrances and exits, helping with logistics and crowd control after “receiving standard TSA training curriculum,” DHS said.

ICE agents are not trained to do specialized security screening tasks, such as operating X-ray machines, White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday. Instead, they take on simpler tasks, ideally freeing up more TSA employees to perform critical screening work.

It is difficult to measure how the presence of ICE agents has directly affected travelers. Many factors, including the number of travelers and available security checkpoints, impact wait times.

The White House press secretary said Wednesday the ICE deployment has been “yielding results.”

“Wait times have improved since ICE arrived, and they are doing everything in their power to help their fellow federal service members,” Karoline Leavitt said.

The middle of the week, however, is typically the slowest time for air travel, and Leavitt seemed to acknowledge there was room for improvement.

“We have seen wait times decrease – not as much as we’d like,” she said.

ICE agents arrived at airports Monday during peak travel times. About 2.6 million people passed through TSA on Monday compared to 2.2 million on Tuesday, data from the agency shows – and wait times ticked up at major travel hubs Thursday morning.

DHS shutdown drags on

No significant progress has been made on a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, as lawmakers are set to leave Friday for a two-week recess. A new push for a deal is underway as airport officials warn of dire fallout if the crisis continues.

Without a funding solution, overwhelmed airports will go into the busy weekend travel days with spring break travel also in full swing and only a fraction of their security screening capabilities. TSA workers have been quitting or calling out in droves after going six weeks without pay.

More than 3,120 TSA officers did not show up to work Wednesday, according to TSA figures released Thursday. The callout rate of 11.14% is just below the record of 11.76% that was set on Sunday. Nearly 500 TSA officers have quit since the beginning if the shut down, according to DHS.

Scrambling to address traveler frustrations, airports have redirected employees from other departments, alerted travelers to arrive hours earlier than planned and brought in outside security personnel.

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport – where wait times swelled to four hours again early Thursday – has seen some of the most severe impacts, along with travel hubs in New York and Atlanta.

“We worry conditions will only get worse at airports across the US until Congress ends this shutdown,” Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System, said in a recorded statement Wednesday.

TSA will send at least 24 officers from its National Deployment Office to George Bush Intercontinental on Thursday, Houston Mayor John Whitmire told CNN.

While passenger volumes in Houston declined somewhat Wednesday, the city’s airports are expected to handle a significant number of travelers Thursday and Friday, in part because an energy conference there is concluding, and the city is hosting three NCAA men’s basketball tournament games, the city’s airport system said.

At New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Thursday morning, the wait time in one general security line was nearly two hours, CNN’s Leigh Waldman reported from the site. The line doubled back on itself, filling the hall, video showed, and the TSA PreCheck line took just over 40 minutes to clear.

The PreCheck line Thursday morning at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport stretched out the door, CNN employee Jonathan Hawkins, traveling through the airport, said. To accommodate the mass of passengers, the line snakes through baggage claim and around the terminal.

“Atmosphere is largely good-natured. People seem to have arrived expecting a long wait,” Hawkins said.

It took Hawkins about an hour to get to where the TSA PreCheck line normally starts, and 45 more minutes to get through security.

A CNN crew at Hartsfield-Jackson saw three ICE agents checking IDs at security lines and moving people through the main checkpoints. Private security personnel were assisting at the bins.

The first time a traveler interacts with TSA in this line is at the metal detector, as TSA agents are still monitoring the X-ray machines.

When a man at Hartsfield-Jackson had a medical emergency near a Delta counter just before noon Thursday, ICE agents assisted him until Atlanta Police and Atlanta Fire and Rescue could take over.

A surge of spring breakers

The middle of this week – again, typically the slowest time for air travel – offered some reprieve, security wait times had returned to normal in several airports by Wednesday, with some exceptions.

Bush airport in Houston reported a two-hour wait Wednesday afternoon, down from more than four hours earlier in the week. The airport can operate only about half of its 37 TSA checkpoints because of staff shortages, Szczesniak said.

“So that’s 100% spring break loads going through the airport being processed through less than 50% of our TSA lanes,” he said. “That is not sustainable.”

Nearly 40% of the Houston airport’s TSA officers called out of work Tuesday, DHS reported. The airport has redirected employees from unrelated departments to handle crowds.

“We’ve reassigned hundreds of employees from across our organization, from finance to IT to maintenance and more, to help manage lines and assist travelers,” Szczesniak said.

Several airports have tried to mitigate long waits by asking flyers to arrive far ahead of typically recommended times.

Airports in New York and New Jersey have brought in civilian security and police officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the region’s major airports, the agency said. Still, those additional personnel may not operate security screening checkpoints and are only assisting with crowd control.

TSA agents near two missed paychecks

While travelers may feel inconvenienced by the delays, many unpaid TSA workers’ lives have been overturned. They have reported empty fridges, eviction notices and overdrawn bank accounts.

“Officers are reportedly sleeping in their cars at airports to save gas money, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second and third jobs to make ends meet, all while expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public,” TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said during a House Oversight hearing on Wednesday.

Tatiana Finlay, a TSA union member, told CNN, “At this point, it has come to the point of, like, having to skip meals because I have to make sure that my kids are fed.”

Many TSA employees live paycheck-to-paycheck, making an average $35,000 a year, according to the American Federation of Government Employees union. If Congress cannot reach a deal by Friday, workers will miss a second full paycheck.

More than 480 TSA officers have quit since the partial shutdown began, and more than 3,000 called out on Tuesday, according to DHS. Some people who do want to come to work are struggling to get there.

“Just yesterday, I watched an officer receive a gas card from one of our partners,” said Szczesniak, of the Houston Airport System. “They had tears in their eyes knowing that they could fill up their tank to get home and come back to work to help keep these lines moving.”

CNN senior editor Joe Sutton, who was traveling from Hartsfield-Jackson Thursday morning, said the crowds and the partial shutdown were taking their toll on TSA workers.

“You could see they are tired and just look a bit defeated,” Sutton said. “But trying to keep some energy.”

Airport officials are providing meals to TSA workers as well as collaborating with the Houston Food Bank and other nonprofits, he said Wednesday.

TSA union workers have said the assistance of ICE agents – who are getting a paycheck – is far from a solution. Finlay called it “unacceptable.”

“That’s like giving a person dying of pneumonia a teaspoon of cough syrup,” said Everett Kelly, the AFGE’s national president. “It doesn’t address the problem and it’s not gonna work.”

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CNN’s Ed Lavandera, Ryan Young, Holly Yan, Aaron Cooper, Alexandra Skores, David Williams and Toni Odejimi contributed to this report.