Leavitt: Here’s How ICE Deployment to Fix Democrats’ Airport Disaster Impacts the Deportation Agenda

Conservative News DailyMarch 28, 2026

The article describes how, during the Homeland Security shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that deploying 100-150 ICE agents to major airports to support the understaffed TSA temporarily reduced security line wait times, with hopes for further enhancement. Leavitt framed the move as a short-term solution to the disruption caused by Democratic actions on Capitol Hill, aiming to get travelers through more quickly. The piece notes questions about whether deportations would decrease while ICE was stationed at the airports,but emphasizes the governance’s focus on addressing the immediate lines and travel delays. It also covers a broader political dispute: Senate Democrats partially shut down DHS in February in response to immigration-enforcement concerns, tying funding to reforms such as prohibiting ICE racial profiling and masking requirements.Senator John Fetterman is cited as supporting full-year DHS funding and criticizing colleagues for blocking TSA pay, while hundreds of TSA agents have quit sence the shutdown, raising concerns about security enforcement and long wait times-reports of up to six hours. The article is attributed to the Daily Caller News Foundation and includes standard disclosures and related content.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked on Wednesday whether deportations will decline in the U.S. while ICE agents are assisting with security and staffing problems at several shutdown-affected airports.

President Donald Trump deployed between 100 and 150 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to several major airports to assist the shortage in Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, after many quit or are unable to work due to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Leavitt told the Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese that security lines have dropped as a result of the move, but the administration is hoping it will improve further.

“Do you expect deportations to decrease while ICE is in the airports and what are the tradeoffs of having ICE in the airports right now?” Reese asked.

“To address this obviously short-term problem and the chaos that has been sowed by these Democrats on Capitol Hill, to address the lines and to get Americans traveling and get them to where they need to be, so the president thinks this was a creative solution, that again, has been criticized, but we have seen wait times decrease. Not as much as we’d like, but hopefully they will continue to. But at major airports, over the course of the next few days as ICE is facilitating with travelers in these airports,” Leavitt said.

Senate Democrats partially shut down DHS in February in response to the immigration enforcement-related killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January. They demanded a list of immigration reforms in return for fully funding DHS, which included prohibiting ICE agents from racial profiling and wearing masks.

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was the only member of his party to support the full-year appropriations bill for DHS. In response to Elon Musk’s offer to pay TSA agents’ salaries, Fetterman criticized his fellow Democrats for preventing TSA agents from getting paid.

Hundreds of TSA agents have quit their positions since the shutdown began and many have grown concerned about terror enforcement.

Despite ICE’s presence at the airports, passengers have reported waiting in lines for up to six hours, according to CBS News.

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