U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will help with security efforts at the nation’s airports beginning Monday as a partial government shutdown is causing lengthy delays for passengers, President Donald Trump wrote Sunday on social media.
“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 Sunday on social media. “But watch, no matter how great a job ICE does, the Lunatics leading the incompetent Dems will be highly critical of their work. THEY WILL DO A FANTASTIC JOB. The great Tom Homan is in charge!!!” the president wrote, referring to his border czar.Homan told CNN Sunday that ICE agents would assist with basic security needs, such as guarding airport entrances and exits, and not conduct security line checks or bag inspections, which they are not trained to do.A day earlier, Trump promised to send ICE agents to airports as Democrats in the U.S. Senate have blocked funding for the Department of Homeland Security over immigration enforcement concerns. In his Saturday post to social media, Trump also said ICE agents would enforce U.S. immigration laws at the airports, “including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia…”Minnesota has been embroiled in years-long investigations into welfare fraud committed by members the Somali community.Also Saturday, billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk offered to pay the salaries of Transportation Security Administration employees to help ease the long waits at airports.”I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country,” Musk wrote on social media.Democrats in the U.S. Senate on Friday again refused to vote in favor of a measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security. While ICE is funded through the so-called Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress last summer, other agencies such as the TSA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have ceased nonessential operations and face worker shortages. This latest shutdown has lasted more than a month with no end in sight. Unpaid TSA agents have been calling in sick as the shutdown drags on, leading to sometimes four-hour lines at security checkpoints at airports.Democrats are withholding their votes because they want to require ICE agents to wear body-worn cameras and “visible officer identification,” to identify themselves when asked, limit immigration enforcement activities at sensitive locations such as schools and hospitals, expand enforcement deescalation training, and mandate that the department report to Congress on compliance with these rules.• Therese Boudreaux contributed to this story.
