The president said border czar Tom Homan will be will in charge.
President Donald Trump said on March 22 that he will deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to airports on Monday to help Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents manage security checkpoints.
“On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. “The great Tom Homan is in charge!!!”
Trump warned he would send immigration agents to airports on Saturday after the Senate failed to advance a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been in a partial shutdown since Feb. 13.
The lapse of funding has caused people who work in agencies under the DHS umbrella, such as TSA, Customs and Border Protection, ICE, and the Coast Guard, to work without pay.
“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.
Trump did not share which airports the ICE agents would be deployed to but added agents are “ready to go.”
A series of airports have faced long security checkpoint lines due to a shortage of TSA staff, who have been working without pay since a lapse in federal funding that started in mid-February.
The Trump administration has placed border czar Tom Homan in charge of the deployment of the ICE deployment that will kick off on Monday.
“I’m currently working on the plan now, [the] execution, working with the director of ICE and administrator of TSA, the active administrator, so we‘ll put together a plan today and we’ll execute tomorrow,” Homan confirmed during CNN’s “State of the Union” show.
Homan said they received a high-level of security training and many were already assigned at airports across the country prior to Trump’s announcement.
“They do a lot of investigations, criminal investigations, and smuggling reports [at airports],” Homan added.
By Jacki Thrapp
