Unpaid Transportation Security Officers at one of the nation's busiest airports finally lost it at ICE as security check lines go crazy — and the immigration agents apparently have nothing to do.
Kyle Pigott, a TSA officer and union president who represents his colleagues at New York City's LaGuardia Airport, snapped Wednesday, three days after Trump ordered the controversial ICE agents in to "help out."
But, Pigott said, the untrained army of armed agents is unable to perform anything that's remotely helpful.
"They’re the reason that we’re not getting paid," he told the website Curbed, which is an offshoot of New York Magazine, referring to the government shutdown that's left TSA agents unpaid for weeks. It stems from a refusal by Democrats to fund ICE as part of the Department of Homeland Security budget.
"And now I’m working next to that person. And they’re getting paid to do nothing. They’re not trained. It takes six months to train a Transportation Security Officer. They’ve received none of that.
"A tweet went out and the next day they’re at the airport walking around sipping coffees, holding on to their vest. They arrived on Monday, and now they’re hanging out in the break room doing nothing. They’re warming up their lunch. I don’t know what you’re hungry from — you didn’t do anything!
"We already have Federal Air Marshal police and Port Authority police, so there’s already 10 armed officers at any given moment."
La Guardia faces unprecedented challenges during the current government shutdown as it was also the scene of a fatal crash late Sunday that's left part of the airport closed and multiple flights canceled.
Pigott also questioned ICE's operational approach: "Why do you need your vest and gun to move a line? That's weird. If police said they were going to come in and help you move a bag or a tray, I don't think they'd come in riot gear. It's gonna make anybody feel uncomfortable. Don't you guys have ICE T-shirts? Don't they have ICE polos?"
Without congressional funding resolution, conditions will deteriorate. Pigott warned: "[A]t the end of the day, what's going to happen? There's gonna be less and less people coming into work. ICE is there, but it doesn't make the line any shorter. They don't make the machines move faster."