U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are being deployed to airports across the country Monday to fill TSA officer shortages, following an announcement made by U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday.
As of Monday afternoon, however, it appears this won’t include Orlando International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest airports due to its close proximity to major tourist attractions like Disney World.
The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, a government entity that oversees Orlando airport operations, told Orlando Weekly in an emailed statement early Monday afternoon, “At this time, Orlando International Airport (MCO) has not been notified that it will be one of the airports staffed with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. If the situation changes, we will be sure to update you with more information.”
MCO (the identifier code for Orlando International Airport) was not on a list of 13 U.S. airports expected to see the arrival of ICE agents on Monday, as reported by CNN, which obtained information from a source “with knowledge of the plans.” The only Florida-based airport on that list is Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.
“The list is subject to change and different plans have been made for how to utilize the agents at each airport,” according to CNN’s source.
The idea of federal immigration officers expanding their presence in U.S. airports has raised concerns due to the heightened tension around ICE actions, and the (understandable) fear and anxiety this could generate among non-white passengers.
After all, federal ICE agents — reportedly receiving substandard training under the Trump administration — have been given the go-ahead to racially profile those they suspect may be in the country illegally. Agents have also arrested and detained U.S. citizens and killed multiple people caught in the crosshairs of Trump’s pledge to conduct the “largest deportation operation in American history.”
The deployment announcement from the White House over the weekend comes in response to TSA staffing shortages at various airports that are reportedly causing longer wait times for passengers during the security screening process. TSA officers have been forced by the federal government to work without pay for about a month, due to a lapse in funding for parts of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including TSA, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Notably, ICE — an agency that also falls under DHS — is fully funded, thanks to billions of dollars secured for the agency under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” signed into law last year. Democrats in Congress have demanded Republicans agree to certain reforms for ICE as part of their funding agreement for DHS.
Trump reportedly refused a funding proposal privately pitched by Republican John Thune Sunday that had garnered some bipartisan support, despite concessions on some of Democrats’ demands for ICE reforms. The proposal would have deferred funding for ICE, but would have provided funding for TSA to ensure officers are paid.
Everett Kelley, the president of the labor union that represents TSA officers, slammed the White House’s announcement to deploy ICE officers to airports Sunday, arguing that Congress needs to “stop playing politics and do their jobs.”
“More than 50,000 TSA employees have worked without pay for over five weeks. Hundreds have quit. And Washington’s answer isn’t to pay them. It’s to send ICE agents to do their jobs,” Kelley of the American Federation of Government Employees said in a statement. “Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe. They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”
Trump’s so-called border czar Tom Homan told NBC News on Sunday that TSA officers will not be filling staffing roles in the TSA screening process, but that they will instead be put to work providing security at airport entrances and exits. “We’re simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don’t need their specialized expertise, such as screening through the X-ray machine. Not trained in that? We won’t do that,” Homan told CNN’s Dana Bash.
The partial government shutdown, exclusively affecting parts of DHS, began Feb. 14. Thousands of federal employees across the country are affected. The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, governed by seven board members, has been organizing food drives for affected TSA officers at MCO and the Orlando Executive Airport to help them get by for the duration of the shutdown.
Meanwhile, the Orlando Sanford International Airport is one of just 20 in the nation participating in TSA’s Screening Partnership Program. These airports staff private security officers (that is, non-unionized, nongovernmental employees) and thus aren’t affected by TSA disruptions — a return to pre-9/11 practice that was advocated in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 plan.
This ongoing DHS shutdown comes just months after TSA officers similarly experienced stalled payment during the U.S.’s longest government shutdown in history, affecting broader swaths of the federal government, last year.
“TSA PreCheck and Global Entry are both active and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority does not anticipate major disruptions to operations,” the GOAA states in an alert posted to MCO’s website on the DHS shutdown. “We remain committed to the best in traveler safety and security and are working closely with our federal partners, who are critical to air travel.”
Additional reporting by Jessica Bryce Young.
Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
