Frustrated Federal Air Marshals Working ICE Deportation Flights

Under the Trump administration, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of deportation flights being operated. I’ve written before about the logistics of these, as they’re largely operated by private airlines. They’re quite unpleasant for flight attendants, as the reality of working these flights is different than what they signed up for when they pursued this career.

There’s another interesting angle to this, as there’s a group of government workers who don’t seem too jazzed about working these flights either…

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200 air marshals reassigned to deportation flights

In the United States, we have the federal air marshal program, whereby select flights have (undercover) air marshals. Air marshals are part of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). It’s largely a pretty nice gig, since they often fly first and business class, and their primary job is basically to just not sleep.

However, some air marshals have been been put on special assignment. Specifically, around 200 air marshals have been reassigned from their usual duties to instead working ICE deportation flights.

On these flights, air marshals are acting as security officers, serving sandwiches, checking for lice, and even cleaning planes. I can imagine that going from flying first class on transatlantic flights to checking shackled passengers for lice probably isn’t the best job transition…

Politics aside, I don’t think anyone would disagree that this is a significantly less pleasant job. I suppose the argument could be made that some air marshals might feel like they’re acting with more purpose in this role and “serving the country,” assuming they’re fans of Trump’s deportation efforts.

This program is controversial with air marshals

We’re getting mixed signals from air marshals regarding how they feel about these flights. Officially, the TSA of course claims that air marshals are proud to carry out this work, releasing the following statement:

“TSA’s Federal Air Marshals are proud to support our ICE colleagues by providing in-flight security functions for select flights. This new initiative is part of the interagency effort to support the President’s declared national emergency at the southern border.”

A government document about this program claims that this has “not impacted Federal Air Marshals’ deployment on domestic and international flights to assess, address, and mitigate varying potential risks and threats to transportation and travelers.”

Meanwhile the Air Marshal National Council, a lobbying group for federal air marshals, has filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general’s office, warning that this mission could “undermine aviation and national security and expose federal officers to unsafe and improper working conditions.”

Beyond how politically polarizing the volume of deportation flights is, I don’t have a strong take on this. I think the concept of federal air marshals on commercial flights is quite unnecessary at this point, and they don’t have much to show for the success of the program. Over the years, we’ve seen hundreds of air marshals arrested for misconduct while on the job.

So it doesn’t seem unreasonable that they’d also be assigned to work these flights, where they’re at least doing more to “protect the skies,” or whatever.

Bottom line

Around 200 federal air marshals have been reassigned to ICE deportation flights. As you’d expect, this hasn’t exactly proven popular with many air marshals — they’re used to traveling on commercial flights (often quite comfortably), while now they’re essentially acting as flight attendants and security guards on deportation flights.