Trump threatens to deploy ICE to US airports

The American president has said immigration agents will fill in for Transportation Security Administration personnel since Democrats are blocking funding

US President Donald Trump has said he will deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to stand in for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel at airports unless Democrats in Congress unblock funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The partial shutdown that began in February has left thousands of TSA employees without pay, resulting in lengthy security lines at airports across the country. Both TSA and ICE are parts of DHS; however, the latter agency received $75 billion from Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that was passed and signed into law last year.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, the US president wrote that “if the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country.”

In a subsequent post, Trump said that the deployment could begin on Monday. 

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has emerged as a major supporter of the Republican party in recent years, also weighed in, offering to “pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse.” 

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On Sunday, NBC News, citing DHS estimates, reported that more than 400 TSA agents have quit since February 14, when the partial shutdown started.

A day earlier, Senate Republicans voted down the Democrats’ bill to fund TSA separately, while leaving DHS without cash. Democrats have for months demanded that new checks on ICE agents be introduced, such as a requirement to wear identification and a ban on facemasks.

Democrats zeroed in on ICE after its agents fatally shot two US citizens in Minnesota in January, who were allegedly attempting to obstruct a massive immigration crackdown in the state.