ICE agents are at airports. TSA agents aren't really sure why.
Marketplace Morning Report
Marketplace
4.5 • 927 Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
TSA agents have been working without pay for more than a month, while ICE agents have started arriving at airports to assist with security lines. Today, we'll hear what reps for TSA agents have to say. Plus, from "Marketplace Tech," the Commodities Futures Trading Commission is looking at new rules for prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. Then we'll help you make sure you're not leaving money on the table when doing your taxes this year.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Negotiations to end the partial government shutdown and pay TSA agents have hit a wall. |
| 0:08.0 | From Marketplace, I'm Sabrina Banishore and for David Brancaccio. There is a GOP proposal to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE immigration enforcement and removal operations. But Democrats say they |
| 0:22.5 | want reforms, like requiring ICE agents to take off their masks. And that is where talks are at. |
| 0:28.6 | Meanwhile, TSA agents have been working without pay for more than a month. Ice agents started arriving |
| 0:34.6 | at airports on Monday to help with security lines. Marketplaces Nancy Marshall Gensar reports on how all that is going. |
| 0:41.3 | DHS won't say exactly where the ICE agents were deployed or what exactly their duties are. |
| 0:47.0 | At a press briefing yesterday, TSA agents, represented by the American Federation of Government employees, said they're not sure why ICE agents have been sent to airports. |
| 0:56.7 | Aaron Barker is the union's local president at Hartsfield Jackson Airport in Atlanta. |
| 1:01.2 | They are literally standing behind the officers while they're checking documents and screening passengers |
| 1:07.6 | or walking the queue line that cascades through the airport. |
| 1:12.8 | ICE agents wouldn't even know what to look for if they were running an x-ray machine. |
| 1:17.3 | According to Johnny Jones, Secretary-Treasurer of the TSA employees union local at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, |
| 1:24.7 | he says it takes four to six months to train a TSA officer. We're trying to |
| 1:29.2 | detect IEDs, weapons, and stuff of that nature. The ICE agents are being paid through last |
| 1:34.3 | summer's tax and spending bill. TSA agents aren't getting paychecks. Union reps say they're |
| 1:40.5 | juggling child care, asking landlords for patients, and taking out short-term loans. |
| 1:45.7 | Sean Rood is president of a local with members in California, Arizona, and Nevada. |
| 1:50.6 | You know, there's only so much that these people can take until there's a breaking point, |
| 1:53.5 | and I think we're at that breaking point. |
| 1:55.2 | If Congress and the White House don't reach a deal this week, TSA agents will miss their third paycheck. I'm Nancy Marshall |
| 2:02.3 | Genser for Marketplace. Congress has its eye on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polly |
| 2:08.9 | markets. Senators introduced a bipartisan bill to stop them from offering what are basically |
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