{"id":174943,"date":"2026-03-25T18:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T18:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/174943\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T18:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T18:00:16","slug":"new-yorkers-ask-what-are-ice-agents-doing-at-airports-as-elected-officials-demand-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/174943\/","title":{"rendered":"New Yorkers ask \u2018What are ICE agents doing?\u2019 at airports as elected officials demand removal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"DSC_1631\t\t\t<\/p>\n

ICE agents at JFK airport.<\/p>\n

Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

Wednesday marked the third straight day ICE agents were deployed to New York airports<\/a> as politicians demand their removal and onlookers have repeatedly asked, in essence, \u201cWhat are they doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Over one million people saw a special amNewYork video report on Instagram Monday showing ICE agents fleeing from photographers as they attempted to hide their faces. The outrage poured into amNewYork\u2019s comment section.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the reason they\u2019re running. They\u2019re embarrassed about betraying their fellow Americans for money,\u201d amNewYork viewer Andres Rochin wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not doing a f$$king thing but wasting taxpayer money,\u201d Toya B wrote.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are getting paid to walk around, pretending they\u2019re on the phone while they\u2019re supposed to be securing the area, as they hide their faces,\u201d Alanna Cohen added.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Sources inside 26 Federal Plaza and 290 Broadway, where ICE agents have been stalking the halls for nearly a year now<\/a>, say that they have been absent from both courthouses for the past three days, since the agency was deployed to the airports.<\/p>\n

This came as President Trump said Tuesday that he personally requested that ICE agents be unmasked while deployed at U.S airports.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a big believer that they should be able to wear masks when they go and hunt down murderers, criminals, and others, but for purposes of the airport, I\u2019ve requested that they take off the masks. I don\u2019t like it for the airport,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\"ICEImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with a federal agent and airport employee assist a traveler after falling on an escalator at John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 25, 2026.REUTERS\/Shannon Stapleton \"\"ICE agents at JFK airport.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

Demands for removal from airports\u00a0<\/p>\n

While fury over the ICE deployment was swift, it only became more intense. Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a statement condemning immigration enforcement officers inside of JFK and LaGuardia airports.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE doesn\u2019t belong at our airports. Our Office of Immigrant Affairs has updated guidance, and you can call their legal hotline at 800-354-0365,\u201d Mamdani wrote.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, who has vocally condemned ICE detainments in immigration court and has put forth several pieces of legislation to remove them from courthouses, also told amNewYork that he has introduced an amendment to ban them from airports as well. <\/p>\n

The law prohibits funds from the bill, or from Public Law 119\u201321 from being used to deploy ICE or CBP agents to airports to assist the TSA or to carry out the functions of the TSA.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than take the Democrats\u2019 offer to fund TSA, Trump is prolonging his shutdown so that he can deploy his secret immigration police at our airports. Not surprisingly, we have already seen evidence of ICE agents harassing and terrorizing passengers in those airports,\u201d Goldman said.\u00a0 \u201cThis must end, which is why I have introduced an amendment to prohibit ICE agents from prowling around our airports, terrifying passengers. We must get ICE out of our airports.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"While heavy lines seemed to have subsided throughout the day on Monday, those preparing to board their flights said they were not thankful that ICE has been stationed in the airport.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, MoveOn Civic Action, a nonprofit, created a petition for individuals to sign, demanding that ICE be removed from airports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shutdown is causing a crisis at our airports \u2013 but ICE agents aren\u2019t the answer,\u201d the petition stated. \u201cWe need every single elected official to be working tirelessly to end the shutdown, pass a budget that puts our families and communities first, and bring federal employees back to work NOW.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ICE agents at JFK airport. Photo by Dean Moses Wednesday marked the third straight day ICE agents were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[71136,2035,71137,1186,29567,9,11,10,1069],"class_list":["post-174943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-dan-goldamn","tag-ice","tag-ice-at-airports","tag-jfk-airport","tag-laguardia-airports","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}