Senate Deal to End Shutdown Would Pull ICE From Airport Security Lines

The 43-day partial government shutdown may finally end, but it won't save Trump's ICE airport experiment. A bipartisan Senate proposal announced Monday would reopen the Department of Homeland Security and restore full pay for TSA screeners while explicitly blocking ICE from continuing its airport security role.

For two weeks, ICE agents served as "force multipliers" at 13 major hubs, checking IDs and guarding exit lanes as TSA sickouts surged past 10%. The arrangement drew fierce criticism from civil liberties groups who warned of immigration agents accessing travel databases without warrants. Now that temporary deployment looks set to expire with no path to permanence.

The compromise strips routine ICE enforcement budgets while funding most other Homeland Security operations. Translation: the immigration officers who've been standing next to metal detectors will return to their actual jobs once the shutdown ends. TSA workers would receive backpay immediately, likely ending the sickout crisis that made the ICE deployment necessary in the first place.

News of the deal broke just as spring break travel peaks. Airports like Atlanta and Chicago saw two-to-three hour security lines last week with ICE agents filling gaps. If the Senate votes as expected this week, those same agents will vanish from terminals by next weekend, replaced by fully paid TSA screeners.

The Senate needs to pass the measure, then Trump must sign it. While the president could theoretically veto the deal, doing so would keep the shutdown alive and force TSA sickouts to worsen. For airports and travelers, the message is clear: the ICE era at security checkpoints is ending almost as quickly as it began.