HOUSTON – Travelers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport say long TSA lines are causing major delays, even as ICE agents are now being deployed inside terminals.
Passengers tell KPRC 2 they waited for hours Monday, with some ultimately missing their flights.
“Longest line I’ve ever done in my life,” said traveler Abraham Omar.
Omar said after waiting for hours, he barely made progress.
“I entered through that door three hours ago and now I’m back where I started,” Omar said.
Others said even arriving early didn’t help.
“We arrived around 8 a.m. and we’ve been here for about eight hours, nine hours now,” said Jacoby Bradley.
ICE presence not speeding up lines
The Trump administration has said ICE agents are being deployed to help move passengers through security faster.
At Bush Airport, multiple agents were seen walking through lines, directing passengers and assisting with crowd flow.
But travelers say the extra presence hasn’t improved wait times.
“It should be going really quicker if they’re helping,” Bradley said.
Former TSA Administrator John Pistole said ICE agents are not trained to screen passengers.
Pistole, who also served as a former deputy director of the FBI, said TSA officers undergo weeks of specialized training before working at checkpoints.
“It’s really to learn how to deal with the screening equipment both for the checked bags and then the carry-on bags and in the person,” said Pistole.
Because of that, ICE agents cannot replace TSA officers at security checkpoints.
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Instead, Pistole says their role is limited.
“The best they can do is to help with queue management,” said Pistole.
He added that their presence may serve another purpose.
“One of the key areas that they can be helpful is to be visible deterrence,” Pistole said. “Somebody who might want to come in and shoot up the soft target of a line of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people winding back and forth and everything.”
Pistole also pointed to a funding issue that could help ease the strain on TSA staffing.
He said money collected from the 9/11 security fee — the fee passengers pay when purchasing airline tickets — is not fully going toward TSA operations.
“A third of that has been diverted for about the last 10 years,” said Pistole. “So thus far in fiscal year 2026, since October 1, it’s been about a $1.6 billion that has be diverted from going to TSA to reduce the budget deficit overall, which it would be much better served in my opinion, as a former TSA administrator, to go to actually funding the TSA workforce."
For travelers, they are now dealing with missed flights, unexpected costs, and uncertainty about when they’ll get to their destinations.
“People have families to go to, jobs to go to,” Bradley said.
As long lines continue, passengers say they just want a smoother process — and answers.
KPRC 2 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security about the role of ICE agents at airports.
Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis sent us the following statement:
“For operational security reasons, we are not going to confirm the locations of our officers. Because of the Democrat shutdown, President Trump is using every tool available to help American travelers who are facing hours long lines at airports across the country—especially during this spring break and holiday season that is very important for many American families. This pointless, reckless shutdown of our homeland security workforce has caused more than 400 TSA officers to quit and thousands to call out from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent. While the Democrats continue to put the safety, dependability, and ease of our air travel at risk, President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, that are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted. This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions.”