GoKawiilI arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport nearly five hours before my domestic flight. This is not my way — usually I roll up to the airport 30 minutes before boarding — but not even I have enough hubris to think that my good luck is more powerful than a partial government shutdown. Congress has yet to pass a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, meaning thousands of federal employees from TSA to the Coast Guard are working without pay — or, in the case of TSA, calling out of work, causing staff shortages and hourslong security lines at airports across the country.
On Monday, President Donald Trump deployed between 100 and 150 ICE agents to several airports to, he claimed, manage these growing, impatient crowds and alleviate wait times. Almost immediately after the fact, a video began circulating of ICE agents tackling a woman to the ground at San Francisco International Airport. The video had been taken one day before ICE’s deployment, and it’s unclear whether the agents were at SFO at the president’s direction or whether they were looking for that woman in particular. Still, the presence of armed federal agents who are notorious for carrying out violent arrests prowling through airports made people uneasy. It made me uneasy to see them at JFK the day they were deployed.
The effects of the ongoing DHS shutdown are most palpable at airports. The shutdown began on February 14th, after Congress failed to pass an appropriations bill for DHS. Democrats have refused to fund DHS unless Congress implements a number of reforms, including prohibiting agents from wearing masks and requiring them to wear badges or clothing that identifies them as law enforcement. Though ICE and Customs and Border Protection are at the center of these negotiations, both agencies have continued operations unabated by the funding lapse, thanks to the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which gave the agencies a combined $170 billion to put toward immigration enforcement through 2029. Democrats have pushed for legislation funding TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, all of which are housed within DHS, while negotiations over ICE and CBP continue. Trump, meanwhile, has reportedly said he’s open to a $5 billion funding cut for ICE if the Senate passes the SAVE Act, a voter ID law that critics say could prevent millions of citizens from casting a ballot. Congress still hasn’t come to an agreement regarding DHS funding; the chaos will continue until it does.
I saw ICE immediately after arriving at JFK’s Terminal 4. Four agents stood in a tight circle outside the Delta Sky Priority check-in area. They didn’t seem to be managing the crowd or doing much of anything at all. Their vests identified them as ERO: Enforcement and Removal Operations, the division that carries out immigration arrests and raids. As I made my way to the TSA line — wait time: one hour and counting — I saw two more agents standing idly in a corner.
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Despite the crowd, I had plenty of time to check out the ICE presence at JFK’s other terminals. I saw the same thing in each one: ICE agents, sometimes from ERO and sometimes from other divisions, gathered together near the check-in area. Sometimes a pair would break off and walk around. They weren’t violently arresting anyone, but they also weren’t helping manage the crowds, which is ostensibly why they had been dispatched to JFK and other airports in the first place.
I saw six ERO agents at Terminal 5 huddled around a coffee stand near the entrance. I made my way to Terminal 7, the oldest and smallest at JFK, and saw ICE before I even walked inside. These agents were with Homeland Security Investigations, the unit typically tasked with investigating terrorism, child sexual abuse, human smuggling, and international financial crimes, which under Trump has had its resources diverted toward the president’s mass deportation effort. Like the ERO officers at the other terminals, the five HSI agents at Terminal 7 — people who, it bears repeating, could otherwise be investigating child sexual abuse — were standing in a circle and chatting. I stood outside and peered through the large windows, trying to look inconspicuous while puffing on my matcha-flavored vape. I waited to see if something would happen. Nothing did, so I went to Terminal 8.
At Terminal 8 I saw four officers, also standing against a wall near the check-in area. Two of them broke off from the group and joined another pair of agents near bag drop. As I took the escalator down to the AirTrain, I saw a man approach them. I couldn’t hear what he said, but the conversation looked friendly enough. A strange version of this scene repeated itself at the next terminal.
The first thing you see upon entering JFK’s Terminal 1 is a large American flag. The second thing you see is an even larger photo of Kendall Jenner. And if you happened to be there at approximately 4:30PM on Monday, the third thing you’d see is a man approaching a group of six ERO agents and asking them to take a photo with his baby. The agents beamed, seemingly thrilled at the request and not otherwise occupied. The father beamed back. The baby sat in his arms limply, as babies do.
I had seen enough. My flight was in a little over three hours; there was no reason for me to keep skulking around JFK.
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