Karin Demirjian

And then that is going to translate directly into pain for the airline traveler, right?

Same sort of thing at JFK.

You've seen call-out numbers consistently go above 30%.

That's a long, long line.

So the logic, ostensibly, is need more bodies, have more bodies.

So send them to help out the TSA.

The problem is that not everybody believes that's the actual reason.

There's a lot of suspicion that actually they are there to try to augment their ability to do apprehensions and deportations.

And the president did say they were still going to be performing that role when they were deployed to airports.

And then the TSA, at least the, you know, reps in the union, they really don't like it because they are basically saying, look, these guys were not trained to do what we do.

The public does not feel comfortable around an ICE official.

The TSA is actually supposed to make you feel comfortable when they're doing your security screenings at the same time.

And because they weren't trained to do it, they can't actually help out in most of these security lines at all.

So they stand there passing out water, looking like they're trying to be engaged, but not actually, you know, combing through your bags or getting people through those metal detectors.

And so what help were they giving?

And for the TSA, it feels like, you know, added insult upon injury because ICE officials are getting paid because there was this pot of cash.

tens of billions of extra money in last year's domestic policy bill that has been used to pay ICE officials, and the TSA workers are not being paid and still having to then do the work.

I mean, exactly.

That's the dramatic irony of all of this, right?

The shutdown that is supposed to be about ICE does not actually end up hurting ICE because ICE has backup rainy day funds that don't actually apply to any other part of DHS.