SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — TSA lines were long at San Diego International Airport on Monday, and while Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have not yet been deployed there, local volunteers worry their potential arrival could affect their work with immigrants and refugees.
San Diego International is not currently on the list of 14 airports where ICE agents deployed Monday to assist the Transportation Security Administration during the government shutdown. However, Border Czar Tom Homan said the number of airports with ICE presence will increase.
Nancy Francis volunteers with local groups to help refugees and immigrants. Recently, she has been transporting people released from the Otay Mesa Detention Center who have been allowed by a judge to continue their immigration cases in the U.S. with family or a sponsor.
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Francis picks them up, takes them to the airport, and helps them navigate the ticketing and security process.
"The only ID they're traveling with are these immigration papers so they can't pass through TSA. We go to a secondary screening area where we have to sit and wait for a supervisor to come over," Francis said.
Francis worries that if ICE is deployed to San Diego International, the people she helps could be detained again or intimidated during the process.
"It will just add to confusion. I think that it will just make things more confusing. It will make the people that we are escorting, as I said, afraid and traumatized," Francis said.
"They're already frightened in the first place. They've been through hell, and now we're at the airport, and to even see an ICE agent is traumatizing," Francis said.
The Trump administration stated that ICE will only take on a supporting role at airports. These duties include guarding exits, checking IDs, and other non-screening tasks.
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