EL PASO, Texas (KVIA)– While El Paso is not among the initial airports slated to receive Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, travelers passing through other major hubs say they are already seeing a federal presence, and reactions are mixed.<\/p>\n
Rachael Wilson said she encountered ICE agents while traveling through George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, where she waited in a security line for nearly two hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey weren\u2019t, like, helping guide people or doing anything helpful,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
She described agents wearing green vests labeled \u201cPolice ICE\u201d walking through the airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey weren\u2019t masked, but they were just in their gear walking around,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Angelo Washington, who flew in from Atlanta, said the presence of ICE agents makes him uneasy as a frequent traveler.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think ICE agents are a little bit more aggressive than your TSA agents, who will try to help you out and get you through the right way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Still, some travelers see potential benefits.<\/p>\n
Jesse Alderete, who was waiting for his daughter at the airport, said long lines have become a major issue. His daughter was recently stranded in Atlanta after missing a flight due to delays at security.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe waited seven hours. She stayed overnight at the airport,\u201d Alderete said.<\/p>\n
He said additional personnel could help ease congestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can keep the lines going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Border czar Tom Homan said ICE agents are being deployed to assist Transportation Security Administration officers and improve efficiency.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir number one mission there, as the president said, is to help TSA with security and help move the flow of people through those lines,\u201d Homan said.<\/p>\n
But travelers like Wilson said that was not their experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey weren\u2019t actually there getting people prepared to unload their stuff or opening up new lines to allow people to move faster,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KVIA)– While El Paso is not among the initial airports slated to receive Immigration and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-217353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}