dailynewsnblog
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said he is ready to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to US airports as soon as Monday if congressional Democrats don’t agree to a plan for funding parts of the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump said Saturday in a social media post that the ICE agents would not only assist the Transportation Security Administration in handling normal airport security but added he would direct them to arrest anyone suspected of immigrating illegally to the US.
Most Read from Bloomberg
“I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia,” he said.
In a later post, he updated his plan to say that he looked “forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!”
The spending impasse has left TSA workers without pay for five weeks, prompting some to call in sick and leading to lengthy delays at major US airports during the busy spring-break season. Although Democrats have repeatedly sought to fund TSA alone, those efforts have been blocked by Republicans.
Asked about Trump’s warning, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the president had an easy solution.
“All he’s gotta do is tell his folks to vote yes on our bill today which funds TSA right away,” Schumer said at the Capitol.
Trump’s post singled out Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and one of the president’s frequent targets.
If Trump follows through with the plan, it would mean a new, high-profile role for ICE, even as the administration has sought to downplay immigration arrests after the agency’s turbulent and controversial enforcement actions in Minnesota that led to the shooting deaths of two US citizens. Trump last month ordered a pullback from the Minnesota operation.
Earlier this month, Trump removed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and nominated Senator Markwayne Mullin to fill the job — a shift seen as meant to help tame tensions.
ICE’s heavy-handed operations are at the heart of a spending dispute that has led to the two-week shutdown of DHS. Democrats have demanded that any spending for the agency come with an overhaul of immigration enforcement procedures. Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats were occurring over the weekend.
