With hundreds of TSA agents calling out of work this week, the stress levels at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have been high. The current administration in the White House took the opportunity to raise the temperature at the country’s busiest airport by sending ICE agents there to assist.
ICE agents are not involved in airport security screenings or handling logistics at ticket windows. They are not assisting travelers with directions to their gates or helping organize the long lines that have been going viral on social media.
The presence of ICE at Atlanta’s airport, the city’s largest employer, has been more cosmetic than cathartic.
“It is unclear how ICE’s presence will improve the passenger experience. One thing is certain: ensuring our hardworking TSA agents are paid will decrease the need for additional federal support,” wrote Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens in a statement to local and elected officials.
In the statement, Dickens says his office had been advised that ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents have not been deployed to the airport to conduct immigration enforcement. In other words, this isn’t Minneapolis.
“While the City of Atlanta has owned and successfully operated Hartsfield-Jackson, this occurrence is unprecedented in the 100-year history of the airport,” Wrote Dickens, who added that this visit from ICE and HSI isn’t unique to Atlanta’s airport.
“This is happening at airports across the country.”
On Tuesday afternoon, ICE agents could be seen standing by the Starbucks in the domestic terminal, or leaning against a wall, heads down, looking at their cellphones. Others were walking through the terminal, hands in their pockets, looking seemingly bored or uninterested in whatever it was that their latest assignment was.
“In the world’s busiest airport, Donald Trump is holding TSA agents’ pay hostage while paying ICE to wreak havoc — the same agency he’s weaponized to kill American citizens and attack our democracy,” said former Georgia State Senator and current gubernatorial candidate Jason Esteves in a statement to The Atlanta Voice. “Trump could put an end to his chaos today, but instead threatens Georgians’ livelihoods and our entire economy. When I’m governor, I will use every tool at my disposal to stop Trump’s disgraceful political games.”
On Wednesday morning at 5:30 a.m., wait times at the main checkpoint in the south terminal ranged from 1 to 1.5 hours. The lines were long, and travelers marched along slowly as ICE agents looked on. Some members of ICE stood behind TSA agents near the ID check-in, stretching their legs or marching in place to get the blood flowing in their feet.
Their presence was neither helpful nor hurtful, like it was in Minneapolis or in Los Angeles. It wasn’t anything. There was no point to it at all.
