White House border czar Tom Homan made clear Sunday that ICE officers deploying to airports starting Monday will not be operating security screening equipment. They'll be taking over peripheral duties so TSA employees can get back to the jobs they were actually trained for.

The clarification came after President Trump announced on Truth Social that ICE officers would "help" TSA agents beginning Monday, with Homan in charge of the operation. Homan appeared on both CNN's "State of the Union" and "Fox News Sunday" to spell out what that help looks like in practice.

"Wherever we can provide extra security, I don't see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine, because we're not trained in that."

Instead, the plan targets the low-skill tasks that currently eat up TSA manpower. ICE agents would cover airport exits, monitor entry points, and handle security functions that don't require specialized screening training, freeing TSA officers to move back to checkpoint lines where passengers are waiting, The Hill reported.

A staffing crisis Congress created

The Department of Homeland Security shutdown is approaching day 40. It began on February 15, and the consequences have been compounding ever since.

According to acting DHS assistant secretary Lauren Bis, 366 TSA officers have left the force since the shutdown started. Late last month, TSA employees received partial paychecks. Last week, they received none at all.

The results are visible to anyone who flies. Philadelphia International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston have closed security checkpoints due to staffing shortages. Lines are growing. Patience is thinning. And the people who are supposed to fix this, the legislators holding up DHS funding, are nowhere near the security queue.

What ICE actually does at airports

The framing from some corners of the media suggested ICE agents would be stepping into TSA's shoes, scanning bags, and patting down travelers. Homan dismantled that narrative before it could calcify. Speaking with Shannon Bream, he laid out the logic:

"ICE agents are assigned at many airports across the country already. They do a lot of investigation, criminal investigation on smuggling at airports. But you got TSA agents covering exits, people that enter through the exits."

"Certainly, a highly trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit and makes sure people don't go through those exits, entering the airport through the exits. And stuff like that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines."

This isn't a radical deployment. It's a resource allocation decision. ICE already operates inside airports. The adjustment moves trained law enforcement officers onto tasks they can handle, like guarding a door, so screening-certified TSA employees aren't wasted on duties that don't require their expertise.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy added context on ABC News, noting that ICE agents run security equipment at the southern border already.

"They run those same type of security machines at the southern border, right? Packages come through or people come through. They run similar assets."

Duffy emphasized that ICE agents "are trained and can provide assistance," though Homan's comments made clear the immediate plan focuses on support roles rather than direct screening.

The plan is still taking shape

Homan acknowledged the operation is a "work in progress." He told Dana Bash that he was "working on the plan" alongside acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, and pledged to have details finalized by the end of Sunday.

The priority, Homan said, would be deploying ICE personnel to airports "where the longest waits are." That's a triage approach, not a permanent restructuring. Send help where the bleeding is worst.

He also made one thing unmistakably clear about ICE's core mission at airports. Immigration enforcement happens there "all the time," he said, and that is "not going to change."

The real question no one is asking

The entire episode reveals something the media would rather not dwell on: the DHS shutdown is inflicting real pain on American travelers and federal employees, and the solution being deployed is creative problem-solving from the executive branch because Congress won't do its job.

Three hundred sixty-six TSA officers have walked away since February 15. Checkpoints are closing. The people still showing up to work haven't been fully paid in weeks. And the political class that created this mess is busy debating whether ICE agents should be allowed to stand next to a door at an airport.

Homan isn't asking ICE to become TSA. He's asking trained federal law enforcement officers to hold a perimeter so screeners can screen. The controversy exists only if you need it to.

Meanwhile, the lines keep growing.