#ICE is at U.S. airports during the travel chaos: What agents are and aren’t doing.

Across some of the busiest U.S. airports this week, groups of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surveyed what felt like never-ending security lines, some directing confused travellers or handing out water, while others stood silently with their thumbs tucked into the sides of their tactical vests.

Painful travel delays have resulted from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security shutdown tied to a dispute over immigration enforcement tactics. On Monday, #ICE – an agency whose tactics are at the center of the funding standoff – deployed hundreds of agents to 14 airports as the Trump administration seeks to ease disruptions.

Flyers have faced hourslong waits and lines snaking out of airports as hundreds of TSA employees have quit and thousands more have called out of work after going weeks without pay.

But while the ICE agents – who are being paid – have been spotted in Atlanta, New York, Houston, Chicago and other cities, officials have said they are limited in what duties they can perform: They are not trained, for example, to operate the understaffed security checkpoints that are often the source of delays.

Instead, White House border czar Tom Homan said they will assist with simpler tasks, ideally freeing up more TSA employees to perform critical and specialized security work.

Under TSA protocols, ICE agents are helping operate the credential authentication machine at the travel document checker, acting TSA administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said Wednesday.

An ICE agent was seen alongside a #TSA officer checking IDs at John F. Kennedy International Airport late Wednesday afternoon.

When #CNN asked the TSA officer if they were training ICE agents, they said yes.

Additionally, ICE agents are now guarding entrances and exits and doing crowd control after receiving standard TSA training, DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement.

“The more support we have available, the more efficiently TSA can focus on their highly specialized screening roles to efficiently get airport security lines moving faster,” she said.

Wait times remain unpredictable as the shutdown continues into its sixth week: Some have dropped dramatically after peak Monday travel fuelled exceptional wait times. After seeing three-hour waits on Monday, passengers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport made it through Tuesday in less than 45 minutes.

But travellers at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport still languished in four-hour lines Tuesday. And lines at LaGuardia Airport in New York stretched well over an hour. The airport has shouldered a backlog of passengers after shutting down for hours Sunday night following a fatal collision between a plane and a fire truck.

As travellers and CNN crews have observed federal agents roving through several airports, it was at times unclear what tasks they were assigned to carry out. But Homan said more airports could see ICE agents in the coming days. Here’s what we know:

ICE will allow TSA to focus on security screenings, Homan says

Some airports have been forced to dramatically cut down on the number of security checkpoints as an increasing number of TSA employees haven’t shown up to work.

At least 480 TSA officers have quit as of Wednesday and more than 3,000 – amounting to about 11 per cent of the agency’s workforce – had called out of work as of Tuesday, according to DHS.

At Hartsfield-Jackson, the world’s busiest passenger airport, about 37 per cent of TSA workers called out on Tuesday. Similar numbers were reported at George Bush Intercontinental. More than a third also called out at airports in New York and New Orleans on Tuesday.

While ICE agents are not trained to perform security screenings, Homan said they could relieve TSA employees of tasks such as monitoring exits and crowd control, and allow them to be redirected to specialized screening work.

“We’re simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don’t need their specialized expertise, such as screening through the X-ray machine,” Homan told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday.

Homan pointed out ICE in airports is not new. They “are assigned at many airports across the country already,” where they perform criminal investigations and immigration enforcement, he said.

John Pistole, a former TSA administrator and former FBI deputy director, said agents may also provide a more conspicuous security presence to deter criminals who may hope to take advantage of the chaos. He noted increased safety concerns amid the war in Iran.

“Hopefully they could be a visible deterrent to a potential terrorist who may want to go in and make a name for themselves” while all eyes are on U.S. airports, Pistole said.

While major airports have their own police forces, these agencies may be “stretched thin” by airport crowds, Pistole added. In Atlanta, city police officers who were working at the airport Monday told CNN their days off had been canceled and they have been working 12-hour shifts.
Agents’ roles aren’t clear to onlookers

As U.S. President Donald Trump announced Saturday afternoon that he wanted ICE in airports, DHS officials raced to formulate a plan for deployment. And as agents arrived at airports Monday morning, their roles sometimes seemed unclear to onlookers.

On Wednesday, Trump said ICE is helping at airports because it’s “rehabbing a fake image.”

“In addition to what they are supposed to be doing, they are helping people with bags, even picking up and cleaning areas. They are so proud to be there!” Trump said on Truth Social about ICE agents.

In the Atlanta airport, ICE had a constantly visible presence but did not appear to be helping with check-ins or directing crowds, CNN’s Ryan Young said. A CNN producer saw one group of ICE agents apparently spend several hours mainly talking among themselves, wandering the floor and getting something to eat.

At George Bush Intercontinental, “They’ve been kind of standing around the edges, clearly not involved in helping process the thousands of passengers trying to make their way through here,” CNN’s Ed Lavandera reported Monday. “It’s not exactly clear how they’re helping, how they’re alleviating the pressure that this airport is under.”

The Houston Airport System has “reassigned hundreds of employees from across our organization – from finance to IT to maintenance – and more to help manage lines and assist travellers,” director of aviation Jim Szczesniak said.

On Tuesday, ICE agents at the Houston airport were passing out water bottles to exhausted travellers in security lines.

Melissa Dunlop, who was heading with her son on a college tour, said she was “happy to see them.”
Immigration enforcement is still on the table

Though ICE agents will be stepping into unfamiliar roles by assisting travellers, they will not be leaving immigration enforcement duties at the door, Homan said.

“We do immigration enforcement at airports all the time,” Homan told CNN Sunday. “Is that going to change? It’s not going to change.”

Trump said Monday that federal immigration officers will conduct arrests of undocumented immigrants, but hedged it is not their priority while deployed.

“They love it, because they’re able to arrest illegals as they come into the country. That’s very fertile territory, but that’s not why they’re there; they’re really there to help,” Trump told reporters.

ICE has previously conducted immigration arrests at airports. Just a day before ICE agents were sent to aid TSA, two people were arrested by federal agents at San Francisco International Airport. DHS said the pair was in the US illegally and had a 2019 order of removal.

At the behest of Trump, agents have been forgoing the masks they often wear to shield their identities when detaining people on the streets. Among the points of dispute over DHS funding is whether immigration agents should be prohibited from wearing masks.

Trump on Monday said he supports agents masking, but believed it was not an “appropriate look” for interacting with people at airports.

“For purposes of the airport, I’ve requested that they take off the mask,” Trump said. “And I believe they are willing to do that.”
TSA union leaders express skepticism, demand pay

Leaders of the TSA workers’ union have been skeptical of ICE’s presence in airports this week, saying their presence does not relieve mounting TSA officer frustrations. TSA officers will miss their second full paycheck this weekend if Congress cannot reach a deal to fund DHS.

Instead of paying TSA agents, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees said, “the administration sent ICE agents to airports as replacement workers.”

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

Hydrick Thomas, a Marine veteran and TSA employee of more than 20 years, said ICE agents may not be suited for the impromptu role.

“If you want to bring a tactical force into an environment where you’re required to have customer service and a skill set – a mindset where you know what you’re doing, how to identify something that might be suspicious – they don’t have that training,” said Thomas, the president of AFGE TSA Council 100.

Some TSA workers who are immigrants are also concerned they may be detained by ICE if they show up to work, AFGE TSA Council 100 Secretary-Treasurer Johnny Jones said.

Many TSA employees live paycheque to paycheque, making an average of US$35,000 a year, according to AFGE. A top TSA administrator has said unpaid employees are confronted with dire circumstances.

“We got folks sleeping in cars,” acting deputy administrator Adam Stahl said. “Folks having to essentially to get blood drawn to afford gas to come to work. So, the situation is dire.”

Many TSA agents feel they have no choice but to call out of work as they lack money for basic necessities, said Angela Grana, regional vice-president of Colorado AFGE TSA Local 1127. She said the fact that ICE agents are getting paid while TSA agents are not adds insult to injury.

“It feels horrible. Our mission is just as important,” Grana told CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “We should never have such a small salary to begin with for such a huge responsibility that we have. And then we’re working side by side with our counterparts that are getting paid. It’s pretty demoralizing.”

In Houston, some TSA agents no longer have the means to get to work.

“Just yesterday, I watched an officer receive a gas card from one of our partners,” Szczesniak said. “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.”

By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

#LaGuardia Airport runway where plane collided with fire truck, killing 2, reopens. The agency which oversees the region’s airports said reopening the second of two runways at LaGuardia, one of the busiest airports in the nation, will help “restore full operational capacity,” though it advised travelers to still check with their airline for flight status.

LaGuardia continues to register the most delays and cancellations among airports in the country with more than 300 cancelled in the last 24 hours, according to Flight Aware, a flight tracking website.

The destroyed Air Canada plane and the fire truck were towed from the crash site late Wednesday as the National Transportation Safety Board continues its investigation.

U.S. Democratic lawmaker asks judge to take #Trump’s name off Kennedy Center.

In a motion filed Wednesday, Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio argues that Congress was clear in its intent that the Kennedy Center is named for the late President John F. Kennedy — and no one else.

“Renaming the Kennedy Center for President Trump — without any authorization from Congress — undermines the Center’s raison d’être, and frustrates its purpose as the only memorial to President Kennedy in Washington, D.C.,” the motion argues.

Trump’s handpicked board of directors voted in December to rename the venue as the Trump-Kennedy Center, arguing the current president deserved the recognition for his efforts to renovate the institution. But the move immediately drew protest from Democrats and some in the Kennedy family along with questions from scholars and historians about whether the move was legally permissible.

Beatty’s motion argues that lawmakers have made clear at various points throughout the Kennedy Center’s history that no other name should appear on the building.

“Congress was particularly sensitive that no other names appear on the Center’s exterior walls, other than the signage designating the institution as a memorial for President Kennedy,” according to the motion.

A day after the board’s December decision, Trump’s name was added to Kennedy Center’s facade, an iconic part of Washington’s cityscape that rests on the banks of the Potomac River. The name change has also been reflected on the Kennedy Center’s website and social media channels.

A central part of the capital’s arts scene since it opened in 1971, Trump is closing the Kennedy Center this summer for a renovation that’s expected to last for about two years. That is the subject of a separate legal effort as a coalition of eight cultural and historic preservation groups is suing to block further physical changes to the Kennedy Center.

Through her position in Congress, Beatty is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board. A federal judge ruled earlier this month that she could participate in a board meeting but didn’t force the board to allow her to vote on the closure.

Steven Sloan And Darlene Superville, The Associated Press

TSA officers in the U.S. share how they’re scraping by without pay

Russian troops liberated the community of Nikiforovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic over the past 24 hours in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"Battlegroup South units liberated the settlement of Nikiforovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic through active and decisive operations," the ministry said in a statement.
Kiev loses 1,360 troops along engagement line in past day - latest figures

The Ukrainian army lost roughly 1,360 troops in battles with Russian forces in all the frontline areas over the past 24 hours, according to the latest data on the special military operation in Ukraine released by Russia’s Defense Ministry.

The latest figures show that the Ukrainian army lost roughly 310 troops, two infantry fighting vehicles and a US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher in the responsibility area of Russia’s Battlegroup North, about 180 troops and five armored combat vehicles in the responsibility area of the Battlegroup West and around 200 troops and three armored combat vehicles in the responsibility area of the Battlegroup South.

During the last 24-hour period, the Ukrainian army also lost roughly 300 troops, a tank and six armored combat vehicles in the responsibility area of Russia’s Battlegroup Center, about 330 troops and two armored combat vehicles in the responsibility area of the Battlegroup East and around 40 troops and two jamming stations in the responsibility area of the Battlegroup Dnepr, the latest figures show.
Russia’s Battlegroup North destroys US-made HIMARS rocket launcher in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicted roughly 310 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed two enemy infantry fighting vehicles and a US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher in its areas of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup North units improved their tactical position and inflicted losses on manpower and equipment of a mechanized brigade of the #Ukrainian army and a territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Ivolzhanskoye, Manukhovka, Bublikovo, Khrapovshchina and Bititsa in the Sumy Region," the ministry said.

In the Kharkov direction, Battlegroup North units inflicted losses on formations of a mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian army and a territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Izbitskoye, Velikaya Babka and Verkhnyaya Pisarevka in the Kharkov Region, it said.

The Ukrainian army lost an estimated 310 personnel, two infantry fighting vehicles, an armored personnel carrier, 21 motor vehicles, four field artillery guns and a US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher in those frontline areas over the past 24 hours, it specified.

In addition, Russian forces destroyed two Israeli-made RADA counter-fire radar stations, an electronic warfare station, an ammunition depot and six materiel depots of the Ukrainian army, it said.
Russia’s Battlegroup West strikes guard brigade of Ukraine’s General Staff in past day

#Russia’s Battlegroup West struck manpower and equipment of six Ukrainian army brigades, including a guard brigade of Ukraine’s General Staff in its area of responsibility over the past 24 hours, the ministry reported.

U.S. says it is working with #Canada on permitting for proposed partial Keystone XL revival.

The pipeline, proposed by Canadian pipeline company South Bow and its U.S. partner Bridger Pipeline, could increase Canada’s crude exports to the U.S. by more than 12 per cent if it goes ahead.

The Keystone XL project, which was canceled by the administration of former U.S. president Joe Biden, is fully permitted on the Canadian side, but a presidential permit would be needed for the pipeline to cross the Canada-U.S. border. State regulatory permits would also be required.

“The president’s entire energy team has been working diligently with our partners in Canada to work through the permitting process,” the official said.

The proposed project was one of the topics Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said he and Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Mark Wiseman, discussed with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum during a meeting in Houston on Monday.

Canada is framing the prospect of a new cross-border oil pipeline as a way it can help the U.S. achieve energy security even as the war in Iran disrupts supplies and raises prices for consumers, Hodgson said in an interview on Tuesday at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference.

“Yes, (the U.S.) are the largest producer of oil in the world, they’re at 12-13 million barrels per day. But they consume 20,” Hodgson said. “And they understand that Canada provides about 63 per cent of that difference.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff wars and annexation threats have strained relations with Canada. But Trump has also repeatedly called for lower oil prices and many U.S. refiners depend on the roughly 4.4 million bpd of exports that Canada sends south of the border.

Hodgson said he made it clear during the meeting that Canada is aggressively working to expand its oil exports to non-U.S. markets by completing a planned 300,000 bpd expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline that runs from Alberta to the Pacific Coast.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has been traveling the globe courting new customers for Canadian energy in an effort to reduce the country’s reliance on the U.S. market.

“What we need to do, as the prime minister has said, is not sell less to the United States. We need to sell more to other people,” Hodgson said.

(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Houston; Editing by Nia Williams)

Union president asks #Canada #Post workers to reject tentative agreement.

A newsletter published by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Tuesday outlined the deal and said 60 per cent of the national executive board are recommending workers vote in favour of it.

But National president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Jan Simpson and four other members of the union’s leadership issued a minority report disagreeing, arguing the deal abandons most of what the union membership wanted to see in a contract.

“These agreements are a huge victory for the employer, the tentative agreements contain major changes, concessions and rollbacks,” said the minority report.

The minority report said the union will go back to the table to bargain for a better deal if the “inferior” offer is rejected.

Canada Post and the union have sparred over wages and structural changes to the postal service for more than two years, with workers having taken to the picket line on multiple occasions throughout the bargaining process.

The Crown corporation has recorded more than $5 billion in losses since 2018, faced with a significant reduction in letter mail and growing competition for package delivery.

The tentative agreement is for a five-year contract, and includes wage increases of 6.5 per cent and three per cent in the first two years.

“We get a raise that still pays us less than the other major carriers and only some of the rights we were already entitled to under the Canada Labour Code,” said the minority report.

Simpson spoke about the tentative deal in a message posted at the beginning of the newsletter, stating that the agreements don’t resolve all of members’ issues, but they secure important gains and protect key rights, including job security.

Voting is set to take place from April 20 to May 30.

Both sides have agreed not to engage in any strike or lockout activity while the ratification votes take place, however a vote is taking place alongside the ratification process to authorize a strike mandate in the event the contract is rejected.

This report by The #Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2026

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press

PETE HEGSETH IS UNDER ENORMOUS PRESSURE TO RESIGN AS THE US IS LOSING THE #IRAN WAR

The Strait of #Hormuz is closed only for ships from those countries that violate Iran’s borders, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said.

"The illusion of erasing Iran from the map shows desperation against the will of a history-making nation. Threats and terror only strengthen our unity. The Strait of Hormuz is open to all except those who violate our soil," he wrote on his X page.

The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.

On March 2, Major General Ebrahim Jabari of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (#IRGC) warned that the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately one-fifth of the world's oil exports passes, would be closed to shipping due to Israeli and US military action against Iran.

#KHARKIV, #Ukraine — The night air in eastern Ukraine is crisp, and a myriad of stars scatter above a small crew of soldiers watching for Iranian-designed Shahed drones that Russia launches in waves.

Such teams are deployed across the country as part of a constantly evolving effort to counter the low-cost loitering munitions that have become a deadly weapon of modern warfare, from Ukraine to the Middle East.

While waiting, the crew from the 127th Brigade tests and fine-tunes their self-made interceptor drones, searching for flaws that could undermine performance once the buzzing threat appears. When Shahed drones first appeared in autumn 2022, Ukraine had few ways to stop them. Today, drone crews intercept them in flight with continually adapting technology.

In recent years, Ukraine’s domestic drone interceptor market has burgeoned, producing some key players who tout their products at international arms shows. But it’s on the front line where small teams have become laboratories of rapid military innovation — grassroots technology born of battlefield necessity that now draw international interest.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says U.S. allies in the Middle East have approached Ukraine for help in defending against Iranian drones, the same type that Russia has fired by the tens of thousands in the four-year-old war.

Iran has also used the same drones in retaliation for joint U.S.-Israeli strikes, at times overwhelming far more sophisticated Western-made air defences and highlighting the need for cheaper and more flexible countermeasures.

“It’s not like we sat down one day and decided to fight with drones,” said a pilot with Ukraine’s 127th Brigade, sitting at his monitor after completing a preflight check. “We did it because we had nothing else.”
How the drone war began

Moments earlier, the pilot carefully landed his interceptor drone to avoid damaging it. He spoke on condition of anonymity because military rules did not allow him to be quoted by name.

Though designed to be disposable, limited resources mean Ukrainian crews try to preserve every tool they have, often reusing even single-use drones to study their weaknesses and improve them.

“Just imagine — a Patriot missile costs about US$2 million, and here you have a small aircraft worth about $2,200,” the pilot said. “And if it doesn’t hit the target, I can land it, fix it a bit and send it back into the air. The difference is huge. And the effect? Not any worse.”

Ukraine’s 127th Brigade is building an air defence unit centred on interceptor drone crews — a model increasingly adopted across the military.

Leading the brigade’s effort is a 27-year-old captain, who previously served in another formation where he had already helped organize a similar system. He also spoke on condition of anonymity because military rules did not allow him to be quoted by name.

He clearly remembers the moment about two years ago when everything changed. He said he was assigned to lead a group of soldiers ordered to intercept Russian reconnaissance drones using shoulder-fired air-defence missiles.

The approach quickly proved ineffective. Agile drones equipped with cameras could easily maneuver away from the slower, less-flexible weapons, he said.

Determined to find a better solution, the young officer began searching for alternatives, asking fellow soldiers and volunteers supporting the front.

The answer turned out to be simple: another drone.

The captain still remembers the day a Russian Orlan reconnaissance drone hung above a Ukrainian position, transmitting coordinates to guide Russian artillery. A pilot from his unit downed it by using another drone, he added.

“That’s when I realized — this is a drone war. It had begun,” he said. “We had been moving toward it for some time, but that was the moment I saw it with my own eyes.”

They never found the wreckage of the Orlan, which burned as it fell to the ground.
Downing Shaheds

Another challenge soon emerged: how to intercept the hundreds of fast, durable Shahed drones flying far beyond the front line.

The young captain’s search for a solution led him to the 127th Brigade in Kharkiv and to co-operation with a local defence company. Their joint efforts resulted in aircraft-style interceptor drones capable of matching the speed of the Shaheds.

Kharkiv is not only where they work — it’s where their families live, a city that regularly comes under Shahed attacks.

Working with the company allows soldiers to test interceptor drones in real conditions and quickly refine the technology through direct feedback.

The company’s Skystriker drone differs from more widely known interceptor systems such as Sting or P1-Sun, which are based on modified first-person view, or FPV, drones. Instead, it resembles a small aircraft with wings, allowing it to stay aloft longer.

“Yes, this is a joint effort,” said the director of the company, who spoke on condition he not disclose the name of the firm or his own identity for security reasons.

“It’s not enough just to build it. It has to work — and work properly — and perform real combat tasks,” he said. “That’s why communication with the military is so important. They give us feedback and help us improve it every time.”
Non-profits and volunteers

In Ukraine, co-operation often goes beyond the military and manufacturers. Volunteers frequently act as intermediaries between the two, sometimes even helping them find one another.

The Come Back Alive Foundation, a non-profit think tank and charity that raises money to equip Ukraine’s forces, launched a project called “Dronopad,” loosely translated as “Dronefall,” in summer 2024.

The idea grew from battlefield reports that FPV drone pilots were occasionally able to track and intercept aerial targets — early cases that helped shape efforts to counter the Shaheds.

“At that moment it wasn’t clear whether this was even a scalable solution or just isolated incidents,” said Taras Tymochko, who leads the project. “Our goal was to turn it into a system — to help units that already had their first successful cases build the capability and scale what they had achieved.”

The foundation worked with drone manufacturers to better understand what systems soldiers needed. As the project developed, the capabilities of interceptor drones evolved.

“At some point they were able to reach speeds of more than 200 kilometres per hour (124 mph), which made it possible to intercept targets like Shaheds in the air,” Tymochko said.

The team closely monitored the rapidly growing drone market. A key factor, he said, was ensuring close co-operation between manufacturers and the military so that engineers could receive feedback quickly from battlefield tests.

“It’s always action and counteraction,” Tymochko said, noting both sides develop ways to counter enemy drones and improve their technology to neutralize each other’s responses. “That cycle is what drives the evolution of drone warfare.”

The technology itself, he said, is not especially difficult to copy. The real value lies in how it is used — and in the experience of the pilots who have learned to operate it effectively.

“People were very skeptical about the technology,” Tymochko said of the early days of interceptor drones. “Some thought it wouldn’t work, that within a month the Russians would come up with countermeasures and the drones would become useless.”

Nearly two years later, the results suggest otherwise.

“Many people called it air defence for the poor,” he said. “But it turns out that air defence for the poor can sometimes be more effective than air defence for the rich.”

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Associated Press journalist Vasilisa Stepanenko contributed to this report.

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Hanna Arhirova, The Associated Press