Trump deploys ICE agents to airports amid TSA wait-time chaos as Dems refuse to fund DHS

As Democrats continue to refuse to fund the Department of Homeland Security, air travelers have grown frustrated with long wait times at airports as TSA agents have been going without pay. Those traveling by air are waiting hours to catch their planes. This comes as President Donald Trump has started deploying ICE agents to help TSA with security at airports across the country.  

Over the weekend as Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security, Trump warned that he would be deploying ICE agents to airports if the funding package was not passed to get DHS as well as the TSA going again. The US government has been in a partial shutdown as Democrats have refused to fund DHS, taking issue with funds going to ICE. This is despite ICE already having additional funds allocated to the agency through the One Big Beautiful bill passed last year. 

As TSA agents have gone unpaid, wait times at airports have exploded, with travelers waiting up to three hours at LaGuardia to even get their bags checked. According to CNN's TSA wait time tracker at major airports in the US, the wait time at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Texas has been 200 minutes as of Monday. TSA call-out rates have exploded around the nation. On Sunday, the TSA call-out rate at Louis Armstrong was 42.3 percent, 41.5 percent in Atlanta, and 37.4 percent at JFK. 

Wait times at Houston as well as Atlanta reached two hours on Friday and New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport told travelers to arrive at the airport three hours before their departure times.  

Over the weekend, Trump said in a post to Truth Social, "The Radical Left Democrats have hurt so many people with their vicious and uncaring ways. What they have done to the Department of Homeland Security, our fantastic TSA Officers, and, most importantly, the great people of our Country, is an absolute disgrace. If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before! The Fascist Democrats will never protect America, but the Republicans will. Just like the Radical Left allowed millions of Criminals to pour into our Country through their ridiculous and dangerous Open Border Policy, the Republicans closed it all down, and we now have the Strongest Border in American History. Likewise, I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, 'GET READY.' NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!"

By Monday, there were reports of ICE agents working and assisting at airports around the country, helping TSA agents. The president has said that ICE agents deployed to airports will also not be wearing masks.