Washington, D.C.—As tourists and travelers in U.S. airports agonize for hours in security lines, UNITE HERE President Gwen Mills released the following statement:

“At a moment where our hospitality industry is already reeling from the downturn in international travel, the White House exacerbated a growing crisis by announcing ICE presence in airports across the country. We stand with the flight attendants, engineers, pilots, and Transportation Security Officers in their demand that TSA agents receive immediate pay so they can do their jobs.

“The presence of ICE agents in airports creates safety concerns for workers and has made a dire situation dramatically worse for travelers. ICE agents have made our cities less safe wherever they’ve been deployed. They have no place in our airports. The only path forward to ameliorating the crisis that U.S. travel and tourism industry faces is for the White House to rein in the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. Current White House immigration policy, which is enforced by these agencies. is the root cause of our travel industry woes.

For months, UNITE HERE has been warning the industry and policymakers about the crisis that White House immigration policy has created for the hospitality industry. Inhospitable, which UNITE HERE released in February, describes the impact on the travel and leisure sector of military-style occupations, violent raids on immigrant communities, and the abrupt termination of legal status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Ahead of major events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup, these policies are damaging America’s reputation as a welcoming destination and devastating the workers and businesses that depend on international tourism.”

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UNITE HERE is a labor union that represents 300,000 working people across Canada and the United States. UNITE HERE members work in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries.