How ICE Landed At Your Airport
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kristi Noem is out, and Senator Markwayne Mullin is in (in theory) as the new DHS secretary. Mullin tried to strike a softer tone during his confirmation hearing, nodding towards rolling back controversial policies like entering homes without a judicial warrant—but his reputation as a Senate-floor brawler raises questions about whether that’s just rhetoric. Meanwhile, the partial government shutdown, ongoing since February 14, continues to affect the department, including causing disruptions to airport services.
What do all these developments signal about the direction that DHS is heading?
Guest: Nick Miroff, staff writer for The Atlantic covering immigration.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The idea of putting immigration and customs enforcement agents at your local airport, |
| 0:11.1 | it started out as a threat. |
| 0:15.4 | It was Saturday. |
| 0:17.2 | President Trump was posting about the Homeland Security shutdown that has slowed boarding to a crawl for travelers all around the country. |
| 0:25.0 | The president implied congressional Democrats were keeping airports from being free and safe. |
| 0:31.3 | And then he said, patriotic ICE agents will do security like no one has ever seen before. |
| 0:39.3 | Trump also implied they would be arresting immigrants in the airport, too. |
| 0:43.7 | When Nick Miroff over at the Atlantic saw this, he thought, what? |
| 0:48.9 | And, you know, as soon as the president announced this, I started writing to sources at ice and asking them if they knew anything. |
| 0:57.3 | And, you know, for really like the first 24 hours, they were waiting for some kind of plan to come down. |
| 1:03.4 | DHS is part of Nick's beat. |
| 1:06.0 | He says, eventually, his sources did get the plan they'd been looking for, but they got it from cable news. |
| 1:12.9 | Are ICE agents going to move into American airports starting Monday? |
| 1:17.6 | Yes. And I'm currently working on the plan now of execution. |
| 1:23.2 | This is the president's borders are Tom Homan on CNN on Sunday. |
| 1:27.4 | This is about helping TSA do Tom Homan on CNN on Sunday. |
| 1:35.8 | This is about helping TSA do their mission and get the American public through that airport as quick as it can while adhering to all the security. |
| 1:39.5 | After hearing this, Nick got back on the phone with those sources. |
| 1:46.5 | I think they were both relieved that Homan seemed to be trying to mitigate the damage of it and trying to set expectations about what ICE could possibly be doing at the airport. But then we're also |
| 1:52.6 | just completely exasperated and dismayed that, you know, once again, they're being used to do |
| 1:59.1 | something that they're that's outside their comfort zone and they're not really, they're not used to do something that's outside their comfort zone and they're not |
| 2:02.0 | really, they're not really trained to do that. Nick says, just imagine you are working inside |
... |
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