Federal employees from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be deployed to Atlanta’s airport starting Monday morning, the mayor said.
In a statement issued Sunday evening, Mayor Andre Dickens said agents from Homeland Security Investigations and ICE employees will be sent to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as the nation grapples with the hourslong wait times that snarled travelers’ plans for more than a week.
Dickens said federal officials told him the ICE agents would be assigned to support the Transportation Security Administration’s operational needs, like line management and crowd control in the domestic terminals.
The agents will not engage in immigration enforcement on this deployment, he said.
“Our administration will continue to monitor the situation closely and remain in communication with the public and travelers as these federal actions develop,” Dickens said in the statement. “Atlanta remains committed to ensuring that residents and travelers feel safe, informed, and supported as they move through the world’s busiest and most efficient airport.”
By Sunday evening, the line for the north security checkpoint snaked around so many baggage carousels it was difficult to tell where it began.
There were so many passengers waiting with their luggage that even airport personnel was trying to figure out what to do with them.
“The only real estate we have is outside,” one woman in a bright yellow vest was heard telling other airport operations staff.
They were considering running the line of thousands of travelers out the door, down the sidewalk and back again.
Meanwhile, a number of people stuck in the line had resigned themselves to the fact that they likely wouldn’t make their flights.
“I know I won’t make it,” said Troy Lawrence who had hoped to make it back to Omaha, Nebraska, to open her childcare center by 5:30 a.m.
Credit: Shaddi Abusaid/ shaddi.abusaid@ajc.com
Credit: Shaddi Abusaid/ shaddi.abusaid@ajc.com
She had been waiting in the security checkpoint more than two hours, but said she hadn’t moved an inch in at least 45 minutes.
President Donald Trump previously suggested on social media that he might bring in ICE agents to fill gaps left by TSA agents during the ongoing partial government shutdown. Some TSA workers have quit and others are simply not showing up to work since they stopped getting paid in mid-February.
Missouri resident Bob Rzepkowski had just arrived in Atlanta after spending the weekend in Athens with about a dozen of his friends from college.
He’s supposed to fly home Monday afternoon but estimated he may have get back to the airport sometime before 10 a.m. if he wants to catch his 2:40 p.m. flight.
As for the decision to deploy federal agents to assist with airport security lines, Rzepkowski wasn’t quite sure how that would work.
“I don’t know if that’ll make it better or worse,” he chuckled. “I imagine they have some training. I don’t know.”
All federal personnel arriving Monday will report directly to TSA, Dickens said. There are no requests for support from the Atlanta’s police officers, and no anticipated impacts to city operations.
“Our administration remains hopeful the federal government can soon find a way to fully fund TSA and pay their employees to resume standard operations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport—and all airports we connect to," the mayor said.
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