TSA union leaders, city officials call for ICE to depart from the Philadelphia airport

Elected Philadelphia officials and Transportation Security Administration union leaders are pushing back against the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at Philadelphia International Airport.

They held a news conference outside Philadelphia City Hall on Thursday to criticize the deployment and demand their removal.

Phil Glover, the District 3 national vice president of American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents TSA workers, called the presence of ICE agents at the airport “political theater.”

“ICE is not built for running airports,” Glover said. “They’re not trained for it. They’re not even trained for what they’re doing in the field right now.”

Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson echoed those sentiments, saying that their presence at the airport creates “an atmosphere of fear, of confusion and intimidation.”

President Donald Trump deployed ICE agents to major airports across the country Monday — including Philadelphia — amid staffing shortages caused by the partial government shutdown.

The shutdown has left tens of thousands of TSA workers nationwide without pay for more than 40 days. As a result, thousands have called out for their shifts, and nearly 500 have quit, leading to hourslong security lines at major airports.

The reassigned ICE agents have, so far, largely been tasked with limited duties, such as checking IDs and managing passenger lines, since they are not trained to conduct screenings. Critics say their presence does little to ease delays and raises concerns about expanding immigration enforcement into routine travel spaces.

Travelers at major airports are experiencing the longest TSA wait times in history, with some cases exceeding four hours. Philadelphia has generally been spared some of the worst waits, but checkpoints at three terminals have been closed.

Lauren Bis, a spokesperson with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, blamed Democrats, saying that agents are helping minimize the impacts of the shutdown.

“President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, that are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted,” she said in a statement. “This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions.”

Glover, an army veteran and former law enforcement officer, also criticized ICE’s role in immigration enforcement, saying they do not behave as “law enforcement’s supposed to.”

“You don’t wear masks, you don’t go without warrants and you don’t fricking tackle people out of cars and break their windows and rip them out of cars,” he said. “So maybe take them for some retraining on that and get them out of our airport and get TSA paid today.”

Council recently advanced proposed “ICE out” legislation filed by Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Rue Landau that would limit federal immigration enforcement activities in the city. The bill would prohibit agents from concealing their identities, block city agencies from collaborating with ICE and bar agents from city properties without judicial warrants.

“ICE agents aren’t qualified to do their own jobs, let alone the jobs of the hardworking TSA agents who have been going without pay at our airport,” Brooks said at Thursday’s event.

City Council members are not the only city officials to demand ICE’s departure. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner held a press conference at the airport on Wednesday. He said his office would arrest any ICE agents found to break the law during their deployment.

“I will put you in handcuffs, and I will put you in a courtroom, and, if necessary, I will put you in a jail cell if you decide to make the terrazzo floor of this airport anything like what you did in the streets of Minneapolis, which involved the criminal homicide of unarmed, innocent people,” he said.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker has been more muted on the subject, which has elicited criticism from immigration groups. However, Parker has said her restrained response is part of an effort to avoid drawing attention from the White House and protect federal funding for city services.