President Trump threatens to deploy ICE to airports over unpaid TSA workers
President Donald Trump has warned that ICE could be deployed to airports as TSA workers remain unpaid during the partial government shutdown.
President Donald Trump announced that starting Monday, March 23, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be sent to airports to support understaffed Transportation Security Administration personnel as the partial government shutdown continues.
The announcement came a day after the president first threatened to deploy federal immigration enforcement to deal with a growing crisis stemming from ongoing funding battles in Congress and exacerbated by an influx of spring break travelers.
“On Monday, ICE will be heading to the airport to support our amazing TSA agents who continue to do their jobs despite the fact that radical left Democrats, who are only focused on protecting hard-line criminals who entered our country illegally, are putting America at risk by withholding funds that were agreed upon long ago in contracts signed and sealed,” President Trump said in a social media post on Sunday, March 22.
In his comments a day earlier, the president said he intended to have ICE agents arrest people who entered the United States without authorization, especially those from Somalia, which the president has repeatedly criticized. It is unclear whether Monday’s deployment will involve ICE officers simply assisting TSA officers in their assigned duties, or whether their duties will also include immigration control at airports.
Customs and Border Protection officers primarily manage immigration at airports.
Recently, a shortage of TSA officers has resulted in longer wait times for travelers at airports across the country, especially at security checkpoints. Approximately 50,000 TSA airport security agents have been forced to work without pay over the past month due to the partial government shutdown.
The shutdown began after Democrats denied funding to the Department of Homeland Security, which includes both TSA and ICE, and lasted until DHS changed its immigration enforcement policies in the wake of a violent crackdown in Minnesota. Republicans rejected a proposal from Democrats to pass funding only to DHS’s nonimmigrant enforcement division, which includes the TSA.
Kathryn Palmer is USA TODAY’s political reporter. She can be reached at the following address: kapalmer@usatoday.com And to X@Kathryn Purml. Sign up for her daily politics newsletter here.
