President Donald Trump said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be sent to airports to assist understaffed Transportation Security Administration agents starting March 23 amid the ongoing partial government shutdown.
The announcement comes a day after the president first threatened to deploy the federal immigration enforcement agency to address the growing crisis, which was sparked by the ongoing funding fight in Congress and exacerbated by an influx of spring break travelers.
"On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job despite the fact that the 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 in a social media post on March 22.
In comments a day prior, the president said he would also have the ICE agents arrest people who have entered the United States without authorization, especially those coming from Somalia − a country he has repeatedly criticized. It's not clear if the March 23 deployment will only see ICE agents assisting TSA agents in their prescribed duties, or if their mandate will also include immigration enforcement at airports.
Customs and Border Protection agents primarily manage immigration control at airports.
Travelers have recently seen longer wait times at airports across the country, especially at security screenings, due to a shortage in TSA workers. In the past month, about 50,000 TSA airport security employees have been forced to work without pay as a result of the partial government shutdown.
Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her atkapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletterhere.
