What began as a social media post from President Trump on Saturday has grown quickly into a full-scale plan to deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports.<\/p>\n
Amid a partial government shutdown, Transportation Security Administration lines have grown to be hours long at some U.S. airports, creating problems for travelers across the country. Call-out rates have started to increase at some airports, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said at least 376 TSA agents have quit since the partial shutdown began Feb. 14.<\/p>\n
By Sunday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that ICE would indeed deploy to airports beginning Monday. <\/p>\n
White House border advisor Tom Homan provided additional details earlier in the day during a televised interview, saying that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to dispatch agents to airports and that he was working with other officials to determine where to send agents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a work in progress,\u201d Homan said during a Sunday appearance on CNN. \u201cBut we will be at airports tomorrow helping TSA move those lines along.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homan stressed that ICE agents would provide support where possible, so that TSA staffers could better fulfill specialized positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine, because they are not trained in that,\u201d Homan said.<\/p>\n
But communication about how exactly this plan would work has been spotty. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA officers, has not received any communication from Homeland Security on this issue and first learned about it in Trump\u2019s Truth Social post, as well as through the press, said Jacqueline Simon, the union\u2019s policy director.<\/p>\n
Dispatching ICE agents to airports does nothing to solve the problem at hand, which is that TSA officers have not been paid for more than a month, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous, and it\u2019s potentially dangerous,\u201d Simon said. \u201cIt creates a security risk, it doesn\u2019t solve one.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement Sunday, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom said Trump\u2019s push to send ICE into airports \u201cis proving the problem in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cICE has become the president\u2019s lawless, under-trained, personal police force, deployed to serve his agenda \u2014 not the law,\u201d according to the statement. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly why it needs to be reined in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The American Civil Liberties Union also criticized the plan, noting in a lengthy statement<\/a> Sunday that this was the first time a president has sent armed ICE agents to airports to replace security officers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the exact opposite of what the American people are clamoring for, which are real, enforceable changes to rein in ICE and Border Patrol\u2019s cruel deportation and detention obsession,\u201d Naureen Shah, ACLU director of policy and government affairs for immigration, said in the statement.<\/p>\n The plans were seemingly first set in motion following Trump\u2019s social media post on Saturday that read, \u201cIf the Radical Left Democrats don\u2019t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n Expanding the argument for the deployment beyond simply alleviating long lines at TSA, Trump said ICE would also oversee \u201cthe immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking from the floor of the Senate on Sunday, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, \u201cICE agents, who are untrained and have caused problems everywhere they\u2019ve gone, lurking at our airports \u2014 that\u2019s asking for trouble. And it will certainly make the chaos at our airports worse.\u201d<\/p>\n At the core of the partial shutdown is a disagreement between congressional Republicans and Democrats over continued funding for the Department of Homeland Security. <\/p>\n Republicans want to fund all parts of Homeland Security, while Democrats want that funding tied to ICE reforms. Democrats have put forward bills to fund key components of Homeland Security, including the TSA, which Republicans have opposed.<\/p>\n Though negotiations are said to be ongoing, the shutdown could drag on even longer as Congress is scheduled for a two-week recess beginning at the end of this week, and each side blames the other for the continued shutdown. <\/p>\n In a social media post, Vice President JD Vance wrote, \u201cWe\u2019ve all seen the chaos unleashed by Democrats at airports across the country. It\u2019s preposterous that Chuck Schumer continues to hold TSA funding hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement, \u201cRight now, Republicans are holding TSA agents\u2019 paychecks hostage because they want to provide more money to ICE, without basic reforms to protect Americans\u2019 rights and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n Appearing on MS NOW on Saturday, before Homan\u2019s confirmation that ICE would be sent to airports, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) said, \u201cAmericans don\u2019t want ICE in our communities, they don\u2019t want them in our airports. They by and large, as I support, want ICE to be abolished.\u201d<\/p>\n Swalwell did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday, but posted on X, saying<\/a>, \u201cPay TSA. Do not pay ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n In a Sunday interview with ABC, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, \u201cDemocrats want to see long lines at airports as leverage. President Trump\u2019s trying to take that leverage away and not make the American people suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n The pushback to the White House\u2019s plans to put ICE in airports was immediate. <\/p>\n