WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump threatened to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to US airports on Monday if congressional Democrats do not immediately agree to fund airport safety.
“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 wrote on Truth Social on Saturday, more than a month into a partial government shutdown. Transportation Security Administration personnel are set to miss a second full paycheck on Friday as a result of the shutdown as lawmakers clash over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency for TSA and ICE.
ICE central to Trump immigration crackdown
ICE agents are not specifically trained for airport security, the domain of TSA, which has 65,000 employees, including 50,000 airport security officers. ICE has played a central role in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, drawing criticism from many Democrats, civil liberties advocates and immigration advocacy groups.
TSA officers have called in sick and the shortage of security agents has disrupted travel at major airports. Over 10 percent of TSA officers called in sick on more than half of the past seven days, DHS said in a statement on Saturday.
