ICE heads to airports Monday to help TSA as Dems keep DHS unfunded

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be deployed to airports on Monday to assist Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers as Democratic lawmakers continue to withhold full funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

President Donald Trump announced the move Sunday in a post on Truth Social, one day after warning that ICE would be brought in to support TSA operations if Democrats did not cooperate on DHS funding. The agency is currently facing a partial government shutdown that has left TSA employees without pay, as Democratic lawmakers have pushed for a funding agreement that excludes ICE.

“On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job despite the fact that the Radical Left Democrats, who are only focused on protecting hard line criminals who have entered our Country illegally, are endangering the USA by holding back the money that was long ago agreed to with signed and sealed contracts, and all,” Trump wrote.

“But watch, no matter how great a job ICE does, the Lunatics leading the incompetent Dems will be highly critical of their work,” Trump added.

The president said that Broder Czar Tom Homan will be “in charge” of the initiative. In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Homan said ICE agents would not replace TSA screeners but would instead take on other security roles at airports.

“I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine – because you’re not trained in that – [but] there are certain parts of security that TSA is doing that we can move them off those jobs and put them in the specialized jobs to help move those lines,” Homan said. “We’ll put together a plan today, and we’ll execute tomorrow.”

Homa emphasized that ICE would do what it can to “help TSA move people through the line.” The move comes as TSA continues to face significant staffing shortages and long wait times at airports across the country. Travellers have reported waiting as long as three to four hours to clear security, as many TSA employees have called out of work or quit their jobs altogether amid the lack of pay during the partial shutdown.