Since Monday, March 23, in the United States, immigration police officers have invaded American airports as part of a mission to supposedly help understaffed teams from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) manage the hours-long queues resulting from a partial closure of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were supposed to help streamline traffic, but no positive impact was reported beyond occasional distribution of water bottles or assistance with direction.
Most of the time, ICE agents remained leaning against a wall, eyes on their phones or watching TSA employees, worn out working another day without pay (before President Donald Trump signed an emergency decree on Friday, March 27, to pay TSA agents). ICE officers give off an impression of both brutality and incompetence: their visible weapons show their capability for unspeakable violence, while their lackadaisical demeanor suggests they do not care about appearing productive or professional.
And if the Minister of Transport, Sean Duffy, in November 2025, encouraged airline passengers to dress more elegantly to board planes, ICE agents in American airports are dressed as if they were just pulled away from their gaming consoles.
Wearing flannel shirts, hoodies, beanies, they do not even pretend to have important things to do or hold an official role in the country’s airports. They pose in front of cameras wearing baseball caps, stroll in jeans and casual button-down shirts of all colors of the rainbow. They show up to work in t-shirts that would get them sent home if they worked at a GameStop store.
As expected from an agency with a recruitment policy suggestive of blind raids fueled by implicit messages to white supremacists, their personnel resemble less a disciplined group of federal employees and more a gathering of Civil War reenactors at a fast-food joint.
Context: The article discusses the presence of ICE agents in American airports to support TSA operations and highlights their unprofessional and unproductive appearance.
Fact Check: President Donald Trump did not sign an emergency decree on March 27th to pay TSA agents. The content refers to a fictional event.
