Travelers throughout the country are dealing with endless lines and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who’ve been deployed by President Trump to support TSA agents during the government shutdown. But the agents haven’t been deployed to the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport or San Francisco International Airport.
According to CNN, ICE agents have been deployed at 14 airports as of Monday, while the New York Times reports that between 100 and 150 agents have been sent in to help with long security lines. None of the listed airports are in the Bay Area, but several outlets reported that ICE agents appeared to restrain a woman and her daughter inside SFO’s Terminal 3 on Sunday night. SFO officials said federal officers were escorting individuals on an outbound flight, and the Trump administration said it was unrelated to its deployment of ICE agents to airports..
White House border czar Tom Homan said Monday that residents should expect to see ICE agents at more airports in the future.
The deployment follows weeks of fighting in Congress over a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have refused to fund ICE or Customs and Border Protection without changes to their operations after agents killed two people in Minneapolis. Trump has pushed Republicans in Congress to not accept any deal unless Democrats agree to pass a bill that would make it more difficult for millions of Americans to vote in elections.
Airport spokesperson Kaley Skantz said that OAK hasn’t been advised of any deployments of ICE agents to the airport at this time, or any other operational changes.
SFO is one of around 20 U.S. airports that staff security checkpoints with private contractors instead of federal TSA agents, the SF Chronicle reported, noting that the contractors are still being paid.
In a statement, DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis declined to confirm the locations of officers. “President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, who are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted,” Bis said in an email. “This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions.”
As unpaid TSA agents call out of work, airports in some cities have seen nightmarish lines. CNN reported that wait times at Houston hit 270 minutes, while at JFK in New York, it’s over an hour. An airplane crash at one of New York’s other major airports early Monday morning resulted in numerous flight cancellations.
Travelers in Oakland thus far haven’t been impacted. Skaley said that OAK “has not experienced longer than typical TSA passenger lines recently.”
“We continue to recommend that passengers arrive at the airport at least two hours prior to their flight for domestic travel, and at least three hours prior for international,” Kaley said in an email.
Several Reddit users have also reported nothing amiss at OAK.
“I arrived at 8:11am on 3/23 for a flight,” one commenter reported Monday morning. “No lines at check point. 5 minutes to clear the bags through the scanner. This was for all lines.”
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