Trump says ICE agents will assist airport security as DHS shutdown continues

57 minutes ago

ShareSave

Grace Eliza Goodwin

ShareSave

Getty Images

Travellers have faced hours-long airport security lines since the partial government shutdown

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be sent to airports to help with increasingly long lines at security checkpoints, the Trump administration has said.

US President Donald Trump posted on social media that ICE agents will go to airports on Monday, while Border Czar Tom Homan told CNN that his team was working out the details of the plan.

The union that represents Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers criticised the move, saying staff “deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents”.

Travellers have faced hours-long airport security queues in recent days as the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security continues.

The DHS has gone without funding since mid-February, after Congress failed to reach an agreement - leaving normal airport security staff without pay.

Trump posted on Truth Social: “On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job.”

Trump’s comments came a day after he threatened to send ICE agents to help TSA agents at airports if Democrats did not immediately agree to fund DHS.

“I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before,” Trump posted on Saturday.

The ICE agents will not be directly involved in screening passengers, Homan told CNN’s State of the Union.

Instead, they will be used to free up TSA agents to conduct the screenings they are trained to do, he said.

Homan suggested ICE agents would cover entry and exit points so “that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines”.

The border czar added that he is still working with the TSA and ICE to iron out the details, including how many agents would be involved, but said the plan will be finalised before agents are deployed on Monday.

The BBC has contacted DHS and ICE for comment.

Getty Images

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded to the announcement on Sunday, telling CNN the deployment of ICE agents is “the last thing that the American people need”.

“These are untrained individuals when it comes to doing the current job that they have, for the most part - let alone deploying them in close exposure and highly sensitive situations at airports across the country,” Jeffries said.

The stalemate over DHS funding has forced TSA agents to go without pay for more than a month, leading to a spike in agents absent from work. More than 400 agents have also quit their jobs since the partial shutdown began, the White House has said.

The TSA screens passengers and luggage for hazardous items.

“Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe,” said Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents of TSA workers.

“They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be,” Kelley said in a statement.

Democrats have demanded reforms to ICE after federal agents killed two Minneapolis residents, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, who were protesting against the Trump administration’s immigration raids in Minnesota in January.

The Democrats have asked the DHS to bar immigration agents from wearing face masks, provide better identification for officers and tighten rules for obtaining warrants.

A bill that would fund DHS and provide payments for airport TSA agents failed to advance in the Senate on Friday.

Trump threatens to send ICE into airports unless funding deal reached

Thousands face long queues at airports in Houston and New Orleans

Donald Trump

US Department of Homeland Security

United States