Summary
Donald Trump said Saturday that he planned to order U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to intervene in airport security starting Monday, unless Democrats agree to a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Trump linked the threatened deployment to continued congressional deadlock and described it as an effort to push the administration’s immigration enforcement into airports.
Trump made the announcement in a series of social media posts while a partial government shutdown continued to disrupt travel, with some of the country’s busiest airports seeing long lines for security screening. In the posts, the president said the Senate’s failure to reach a resolution during an unusual weekend session pushed him toward acting on his plan.
“The ICE is ready to go Monday,” Trump said in the posts, writing that he expects to deploy ICE and urging people to “PREPÁRENSE” — “NO MÁS ESPERAS, NO MÁS JUEGOS!” as he spent the weekend in Florida. He also suggested the agents would carry out a broader push against immigration enforcement, including a pledge to arrest “all illegal immigrants.”
Trump did not provide additional detail on how ICE would assume a role in airport security, or what the change would mean for the Transportation Security Administration, which reviews passengers and baggage for dangerous items. The administration’s TSA work has continued during the funding lapse, but many employees have done so without pay.
The threat reflects, according to the AP report, what it described as a deliberate effort to expand the kinds of immigration enforcement actions that have become a congressional flash point. Democrats have said they would oppose the DHS funding measure unless the administration makes changes following a Minnesota immigration raid that ended in the deaths of two protesters, a dispute Democrats used to justify demands for tighter rules and oversight.
The AP report said Democrats are seeking improvements including better identification for federal law-enforcement agents, a new code of conduct for immigration agencies, and greater reliance on court orders. The Minnesota operation was also described as being linked in part to allegations involving fraud claims tied to Somali residents.
Trump reiterated criticism of Somali people in the posts and said the ICE agents sent to airports would focus on arresting Somali immigrants living in the country illegally. He also said “destruyeron por completo” Minnesota, renewing a claim he has made while tying his airport plan to immigration enforcement priorities.
Separately, the funding fight remains unresolved in the Senate. The report said the Senate rejected a motion by Democrats to consider legislation that would reopen the TSA and pay the workers who have not received salaries since the partial shutdown began Feb. 14. Republicans have argued they need funding for all areas of DHS rather than only certain parts, and the AP report said a bill to fund the cabinet department failed to advance on Friday.
Even so, the report said there were signs of movement as congressional and White House talks continued. It said Republican and Democratic senators were scheduled to meet behind closed doors with White House officials for a third consecutive day, and that Schumer said the discussions were “productive.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged lawmakers to act quickly, warning Saturday that if the group meeting cannot find a solution soon, “things are going to worsen and worsen.”