ICE agents begin working at Pittsburgh International Airport as partial government shutdown drags on

PITTSBURGH — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began their public-facing work Tuesday morning at Pittsburgh International Airport, a day after they arrived at the airport for training as the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown continues to hamper airports around the country.

Kimberly Kraynak-Lambert, District 3 manager for the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents Transportation Security Administration officers, told the Post-Gazette she believed the agents will be armed and “will only be doing crowd-control type of non-screening functions.”

The Post-Gazette saw several agents in the airport Tuesday morning wearing Homeland Security Investigations and ICE vests, including near the security checkpoints.

ICE personnel are expected to be at 14 airports across the country. HSI is the “principal investigative component” of the Department of Homeland Security, according to ICE.

The ICE agents will not carry out law enforcement activities at PIT, Kraynak-Lambert said.

Allegheny County Police and the Allegheny County Airport Authority do not have control over how the federal agency will operate, officials said.

Jim Madalinsky, a spokesman for Allegheny County police, told the Post-Gazette Monday that the department has been “made aware of ICE agents being deployed at Pittsburgh International Airport,” but county police operations will not be impacted.

Allegheny County Airport Authority spokesman Bob Kerlik said Monday afternoon that ICE had arrived at Pittsburgh International as TSA employees continue working without pay amid the DHS funding stalemate in Congress.

Airport impacts

Pittsburgh airport officials have said they have not seen any significant impacts to security checkpoint wait times as a result of the partial shutdown.

Airport spokesman Dan Lagiovane said PIT’s TSA lines have remained under 10 minutes on average since the partial shutdown began. Wait times slightly increased from March 7-22 — when many schools are on break — but that is common during the spring break travel season each year, he said.

PIT and Philadelphia International Airport saw over 24% of TSA workers call out on Sunday, Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said in a social media post Monday.

The day before ICE agents started at PIT, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who has voted with Republicans on funding DHS, said the long lines at airports “came from a very specific choice to shut DHS down.”

“Can you imagine what this must be like for the UNPAID TSA employees and people that are desperate to make their flight??” he wrote on X.

A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel, whose district includes Pittsburgh International, denounced the deployment of ICE officers.

"Pittsburgh International Airport did not ask for ICE to come to the airport,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Post-Gazette. “Instead of sending untrained ICE agents here to do TSA agents’ jobs, this administration should support — as Congressman Deluzio does — paying our hardworking TSA officers and reopening the government alongside commonsense ICE reforms to protect American lives and liberties."

John Vetter arrived at PIT on Tuesday from New York’s LaGuardia Airport, where two pilots were killed and several others were injured when a jet collided with a fire truck Sunday.

Vetter, who came from Long Island, N.Y., and said he had a pretty seamless travel experience, said he doesn’t think ICE is needed to assist TSA.

“I think it's really ridiculous for them to be here in that capacity,” he said. “That's like them asking any of us to go and become TSA agents.”

Carol Guy, who flew back to PIT from Orlando on Tuesday, said she doesn’t see a need especially at PIT, where wait times have remained far lower than some of the busier airports around the country.

“I haven’t seen a need yet,” said the 74-year-old from Hopwood, Fayette County.

Guy, who has been traveling regularly through the partial government shutdown, expressed concern for the TSA officers working without pay.

“If they're gonna pay ICE, let's pay TSA,” she said. “What’s the difference?”

A partial resolution?

Markwayne Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma, was confirmed as secretary of the department on Monday, taking over after Kristi Noem was removed from the position.

Then on Tuesday, lawmakers were discussing a proposal to end the shutdown by partially funding DHS, which would include TSA workers but not ICE, the Associated Press reported.

President Donald Trump had announced the plans to send ICE agents to assist TSA officers on Sunday as images and videos of the hourslong lines at some of the nation’s busiest airports continued to surface.

Pittsburgh International was on a list of 14 U.S. airports that ICE agents were sent to Monday, and White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN “there will be more.”

DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis said the agents were deployed to airports across the country to help address the long lines American travelers are facing.

Hundreds of TSA officers, who are working without pay, have quit amid the partial government shutdown. More 400 TSA officers have quit, and thousands have called off work, Bis said.

Democrats have said they would not approve more money to fund the Department of Homeland Security until new restrictions are placed on the federal government’s immigration enforcement agenda.