Trump threatens to deploy ICE to airports amid DHS funding standoff

President Trump on Saturday threatened to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to conduct airport security if Democrats do not agree to a funding bill to reopen the partially shuttered Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“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,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The warning comes after the Senate failed again on Friday to advance a measure to end the funding lapse, with Democrats insisting counteroffers from the White House, which have included some concessions, are insufficient.

Democrats are holding firm in their demands to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tactics — calls which grew louder following the deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents carrying out the president’s deportation agenda in Minneapolis last month.

Trump referenced the immigration crackdown in Minnesota on Saturday, writing that in addition to conducting airport screening, ICE officers would arrest immigrants that enter the country illegally, “with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia.”

The Somali community has been in the administration’s crosshairs for months in part due to a massive COVID-19 pandemic-era fraud scandal, also in Minnesota. He also made several divisive remarks about immigrants from the country in his State of the Union address last month, prompting Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to shout “liar” at him in the chamber.

Meanwhile, Democrats have pushed for votes that would split off funding for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and other agencies not responsible for immigration enforcement, but Republicans have repeatedly blocked those efforts.

TSA has emerged as a flashpoint in the funding fight, as wait times at security checkpoints become longer and travelers begin to feel the impact of staffing shortages at airports across the country.

An increasing number of TSA employees, who have already missed one paycheck, are calling out sick or quitting the force altogether because they cannot afford to work without pay, according to DHS.

Billionaire Elon Musk offered early Saturday morning to cover the salaries of airport security workers while the shutdown continues, though it was not immediately clear how that would work or its legality.

Senate Democrats said they are planning to force a vote Saturday on a proposal to fully fund TSA, according to Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“America will see the matter crystal clear: which Senators WANT to pay TSA workers and end the chaos at our airports, and which Senators are going to BLOCK TSA funding yet again,” Schumer wrote Friday on the social platform X.

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