Border czar Tom Homan confirmed on Sunday that immigration agents would be at airports from Monday.
In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Homan told host Dana Bash that he is drafting a plan with Ted Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Ha Nguyen McNeil, acting administrator of the TSA, to determine where agents would be best suited at airports across the country. That plan will be finalized Sunday and take effect Monday, Homan said.
“By the end of today we will have a plan, including which airports we are starting with,” Homan said.
Homan’s announcement comes as congressional Democrats continue to refuse to approve funding for the Department of Homeland Security unless Republicans and the administration agree on significant changes to ICE. This weekend, President Donald Trump threatened to deploy ICE agents to airports if the standoff continues.
“If Democrats do not allow fair and reasonable security at our airports and elsewhere across our country, ICE will do a better job than ever before!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “I’m looking forward to taking him to ICE on Monday, and I’ve already told them, ‘Get ready.’ No more waiting, no more games!”
The partial government shutdown has left the TSA short-staffed, leading to hours-long wait times at some airports across the country.
Homan said Sunday that DHS should send agents to locations with the longest wait times.
“I haven’t seen an ICE agent looking at the
Agents will also conduct immigration enforcement at airports, which they already do “all the time,” Homan said.
On Sunday evening, Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement that he had been informed that federal personnel from Homeland Security Investigations and ICE’s enforcement and removal operations would be deployed to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday morning.
“According to federal officials, these personnel will be deployed to support operational requirements as directed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), including line management and crowd control within domestic terminals,” Dickens said. “Federal officials have indicated that the purpose of this deployment is not to conduct immigration enforcement activities.”
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Democrats see the long lines as “leverage” for their demands for change.
Duffy said, “Democrats want to see long lines at airports as a benefit. President Trump is trying to take away that benefit and not make the American people suffer.” “So, if we can bring in other assets and equipment to assist TSA in getting rid of these lines, yes, I think that makes a lot of sense. And the President is watching every corner to make sure that the American people are not inconvenienced during the shutdown.”
But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday that ICE at airports is “the last thing the American people need…potentially brutalizing them or in some cases killing them.”
“We’ve already seen how ICE operates,” Jeffries said in an interview shortly after Homan. “When it comes to doing the current work these are untrained individuals for the most part, let alone deploying them into close-risk and highly sensitive situations at airports across the country.”
