Amid a battle between Democrats and Republicans over funding the Department of Homeland Security and securing pay for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers during the ongoing partial government shutdown, the Trump administration has decided to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to assist, according to NPR.
President Donald Trump confirmed the move on his Truth Social app just hours after Border Czar Tom Homan announced it on CNN.
“On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job,” Trump posted.
Homan made the announcement on March 22, saying that he and his team were curating a plan to activate on March 23. But when anchor Dana Bash asked how effective it could be with just 24 hours, Homan seemed to say it’s not that hard.
“Again, ICE has been in airports a long time; it’s just expanding the same,” he said.
“How much of a plan does it mean to guard an exit to make sure no one comes through that exit? We’re talking about security options, and these officers are well trained in security, and they’re well trained in identification, and we’re going to do what we can to help TSA move those people through the line.”However, in a statement, Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said ICE has no business assisting agents, because the job is more than just checking IDs; agents spend months being trained to detect explosives, weapons, and threats designed to evade checkpoint detection. “ICE agents are not trained or certified in aviation security,” he said.
“They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”
Given ICE’s recent history, there is also concern that its
presence may instill fear.“The last thing that the American people need is for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports all across the country, potentially to brutalize or, in some instances, kill them,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said.
Social media users have similar thoughts, some even wondering how TSA agents aren’t getting paid but ICE agents are as they fall under the same agency. “So they are getting paid but the TSA workers they are standing alongside aren’t? Doesn’t seem very fair,” @ebonyesha wrote on Instagram.
Another user feels this is a waste of resources as the government can just pay TSA so they can return to work. “So they’d rather pay ICE agents who don’t know wtf they doing than to just pay the TSA agents to do their job. Got it,” @christen_noelle said.
The administration blamed the Democratic Party for making ICE’s
presence necessary in the first place. “This pointless, reckless shutdown of our homeland security workforce has caused more than 400 TSA officers to quit and thousands to call out from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent,” Acting Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement.Trump followed with the same sentiments. “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 president wrote on social media, according to Politico.
“I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!”
Leaders of metro cities across the country confirmed ICE’s presence, like Atlanta’s Mayor Andre Dickens. He said agents will be deployed to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to “support operational needs directed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), including line management and crowd control within the domestic terminals.”
As seen on social media, security lines at the world’s busiest airport have wrapped around the building.
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