Why ICE agents are getting paid, but TSA employees are not

ICE agents have been deployed to a handful of US airports. Megan Varner/Getty Images 2026-03-23T17:26:14.082Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.

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President Donald Trump has proposed using ICE agents to support unpaid TSA workers. TSA workers are unpaid due to a partial shutdown affecting most of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE agents are being paid out of funds allocated in last year's big spending and tax bill. AI-generated summary Summaries are generated by an AI model trained on Business Insider's articles. AI may make mistakes or provide inaccurate/incomplete information. We're unable to load that answer right now. Please try again. How does ICE funding remain unaffected? How are TSA workers coping financially? How might ICE agents impact airport security? What is the SAVE America Act? What are the implications of DHS pay disparity? Americans who have flown recently have likely encountered airports defined by hourslong lines and general chaos.

President Donald Trump has a new solution: Call in paid Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to help staff airports full of unpaid Transportation Security Administration workers.Currently, TSA workers are working without pay or calling out entirely as a result of a partial government shutdown that started on February 14. The shutdown closed off funding for most of the Department of Homeland Security, leading to delays for travelers trying to navigate security. In January, lawmakers squabbled over the funding package for DHS, as Democrats pushed for reforms to ICE and Customs and Border Protection following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renée Good. The rest of the government was ultimately funded — although there was technically a brief broader shutdown — but lawmakers still haven't reached a resolution on Department of Homeland Security funding, including money for TSA.However, even as Democrats tried to target ICE in their specific funding demands, workers at the agency remain paid through a tranche of funding from President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act — making ICE, as the libertarian think-tank Cato Institute wrote, "shut-down proof." The law included $75 billion in funding for immigration enforcement through fiscal year 2029, and that money is still available despite the rest of DHS being shut down. Every time Juliana publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Juliana and get more of their work as it publishes. Sign up By clicking "Sign up", you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. That's created a DHS pay disparity: TSA workers have been on the clock without guaranteed pay since mid-February while ICE workers receive paychecks.TSA officer callouts topped 3,450 over the weekend, and hundreds of workers have quit entirely, according to data shared with Business Insider by DHS. A message on Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport's website Monday morning warns travelers that, "due to current federal conditions," they should allow at least four hours for screenings. And there might be no end in sight for a funding resolution, as Trump called for the passage of the SAVE America Act, which faces major hurdles to passage in the Senate, in conjunction with DHS funding. That bill would require voters to prove their citizenship when they register to vote."This pointless, reckless shutdown of our homeland security workforce has caused more than 400 TSA officers to quit and thousands to call out from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent," DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. "While the Democrats continue to put the safety, dependability, and ease of our air travel at risk, President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, that are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted. This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions." Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees — the union representing TSA agents — decried the move to send in ICE. Kelley said in a statement that ICE agents "are not trained or certified in aviation security.""TSA officers spend months learning to detect explosives, weapons, and threats specifically designed to evade detection at checkpoints — skills that require specialized instruction, hands-on practice, and ongoing recertification. You cannot improvise that," Kelley said. "Putting untrained personnel at security checkpoints does not fill a gap. It creates one."