President Donald Trump threatened to send in the National Guard if ICE officers don’t successfully help quell long security lines at U.S. airports as the partial government shutdown leads to chaos for spring break travelers.
“I want to thank ICE because they stepped in so, so strongly. They’ll do great,” Trump said of the federal immigration officers being deployed to airports across the U.S. Monday. “And if that’s not enough, I’ll bring in the National Guard.”
On Monday morning, NBC Chicago reporters saw Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at checkpoints in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Numerous other airports also reported similar sights.
Video captured by NBC News shows at least two ICE agents at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson confirmed an estimated 75 officers were expected to be deployed to O’Hare across numerous shifts starting Monday. Midway Airport was not expected to be impacted.
Johnson said the ICE personnel were expected to “perform non-screening support functions, including monitoring exit lanes, making routine passenger announcements (such as reminding travelers to remove liquids from their bags), assisting with queue management, and related activities intended to allow TSA officers to remain focused on passenger and baggage screening.”
Trump on Monday also directed ICE officers not to wear face coverings in their work at airports.
Federal officers are a routine presence at international airports, where Customs and Border Protection officers screen arriving travelers and Homeland Security Investigations agents handle criminal cases. But what’s unusual in the current moment is their visibility at TSA security checkpoints.
“We will closely monitor the deployment and use every tool we have to ensure that people, no matter their immigration status, can travel to and from Chicago safely and without harassment from the federal government,” Johnson said in a statement.
White House border czar Tom Homan said in Sunday interviews that the increased role of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at airports was “a work in progress.”
The priority, he said, was “the large airports where there’s a long wait, like three hours.”
“We’re going to be a force multiplier,” Homan said, while also acknowledging there were limits.
“I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine, because we’re not trained in that,” he said. He pledged to have “a plan by the end of today, where we’re sending — what airports we’re starting with and where we’re sending them.”
Some fear the move to deploy federal immigration agents will only escalate tensions. Union leaders representing aviation workers stressed that ICE officers don’t have the same training and expertise as TSA workers — and the presence of federal immigration officers could also put some travelers on edge.
“We’re not going to have the Democrats destroy our country,” Trump said Monday, referring to the impasse in Congress over Department of Homeland Security funding as Democrats seek an ICE overhaul.
Monday’s deployments came as hundreds of thousands of Homeland Security workers, including from the TSA, U.S. Secret Service and Coast Guard, have worked without pay since Congress failed to renew DHS funding last month. That’s led many TSA agents to call in sick — or even quit their jobs — as financial strains pile up. The staffing shortages have forced some airports to close checkpoints at times, with wait times swinging dramatically for travelers.
Funding for the department lapsed Feb. 14, as Democrats refused to fund ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection without changes to their operations in the wake of the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.
But Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 50,000 TSA employees, condemned Trump’s plan, saying in a statement that ICE agents are not trained or certified in aviation security.
“Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe,” Kelley said Sunday. “They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”
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