Roughly 200 Federal Air Marshals have reportedly been reassigned from their usual duties protecting the U.S. transit system to assist with Trump administration deportation flights alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Marshals, the main law enforcement arm of the Transportation Security Administration, better known for missions like protecting U.S. commercial flights, are instead carrying out tasks on deportation flights like providing security, handing out sandwiches to detainees, checking them for lice, and cleaning plans, CNN reports.
The reported deployment has proved controversial within the Marshals community, with the Air Marshals union praising the mission, while a lobbying group for Air Marshals argues it distracts from the agents’ core function and sees the Marshals acting as glorified security guards for government contractors that manage some flights.
The group, the Air Marshal National Council, has filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office, and has warned the new mission could “undermine aviation and national security and expose federal officers to unsafe and improper working conditions.”
The ICE deployment has “has not impacted Federal Air Marshals’ deployment on domestic and international flights to assess, address, and mitigate varying potential risks and threats to transportation and travelers,” according to government documents obtained by CNN.
The Independent has contacted ICE and the TSA for comment.
The latter agency confirmed the deployment of Marshals last month in a statement to GovExec.
“TSA’s Federal Air Marshals are proud to support our ICE colleagues by providing in-flight security functions for select [Enforcement and Removal Operations] flights,” an agency spokesperson said. “This new initiative is part of the interagency effort to support the President’s declared national emergency at the southern border.”
In its push to rapidly arrest and deport thousands, the Trump administration has tapped government workers from across a variety of agencies to bolster ICE, including IRS agents, U.S. Postal Inspectors, Defense Department troops, as well as agents from the FBI, U.S. Marshals, Drug Enforcement Agency, and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives.
ICE deportation flights have been a lightning rod for controversy.
The White House came in for criticism online for using a frequently memed soundbite advertising a British airline to mock a group of migrants being escorted onto an ICE flights.
Airlines that contract with ICE have also faced criticism and boycotts.
Immigration operations are expected to continue massively expanding over the next three-and-a-half years after the passage of the president’s One Big, Beautiful Bill spending package, which contains about $170 billion in immigration and border enforcement funding.
