Sending ICE Officers Into Airports To Assist TSA Is A Dumb Idea: ‘No Way It Helps’

The president’s plan is an unhelpful distraction at best and could actually make things more dangerous, TSA union leaders say.

The union representing Transportation Security Administration officers has a message for President Donald Trump: Thanks, but no thanks.

On Monday morning, the president dispatched Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to several airports to supposedly alleviate long security lines created by the partial government shutdown. But union representatives for TSA officers say the president’s plan is unhelpful at best and could actually make things more dangerous.

“Our guys are going to be pissed,” said Joe Shuker, a regional vice president for the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing TSA officers.

Shuker told HuffPost he received a text message Monday morning about ICE officers showing up at Philadelphia International Airport, one of 14 locations where the administration planned to send them. He wasn’t sure exactly what the ICE officers would be doing, but he knows they aren’t trained to do what TSA officers do: spot airport-specific security threats such as homemade bombs inside luggage and fake passports.

“There’s no way it helps,” he said of the ICE officers’ new assignment.