Trump Border Advisor Says Ice To Deploy To U.s. Airports Monday

What began arsenic a societal media station from President Trump connected Saturday has grown quickly into a full-scale scheme to deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports.

Amid a partial authorities shutdown, TSA lines person grown to beryllium hours agelong astatine immoderate U.S. airports, creating problems for travelers crossed nan country. Call-out rates person started to summation astatine immoderate airports, and nan U.S. Department of Homeland Security said astatine slightest 376 TSA agents person discontinue since nan partial shutdown began Feb. 14.

White House separator advisor Tom Homan said that ICE plans to dispatch agents to airports arsenic soon arsenic Monday, and that he was moving pinch different officials to find wherever to nonstop agents.

“It’s a activity successful progress,” Homan said during a Sunday quality connected CNN. “But we will beryllium astatine nan airports tomorrow helping TSA move those lines along.”

Homan stressed that ICE agents would supply support wherever possible, truthful that TSA staffers could amended fulfill specialized positions.

“I don’t spot an ICE supplier looking astatine an X-ray machine, because they are not trained successful that,” Homan said.

On Saturday, President Trump posted to societal media, “If nan Radical Left Democrats don’t instantly motion an statement to fto our Country, successful particular, our Airports, beryllium FREE and SAFE again, I will move our superb and patriotic ICE Agents to nan Airports wherever they will do Security for illustration nary 1 has ever seen before.”

The pushback to nan White House plans was immediate.

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking personnel of nan Committee connected Homeland Security, released a connection that read, “Masked, equipped constabulary astatine recreation checkpoints is simply a hallmark of dystopian movies. Now, Donald Trump is threatening to bring this instrumentality of fascism to America. He is manufacturing chaos astatine airports for governmental leverage and trying to unit Democrats to judge unaccountable concealed constabulary astatine information checkpoints astir nan country.”

Also speaking to CNN connected Sunday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “The past point that nan American group request are for untrained ICE agents to beryllium deployed astatine airports each crossed nan country, perchance to brutalize or, successful immoderate instances, termination them. We’ve already seen really ICE conducts itself.”

Representatives from Los Angeles International Airport did not instantly respond to a petition for comment. A spokeswoman for Orange County’s John Wayne Airport said she was not presently alert of immoderate connection aliases Homeland Security guidance connected nan projected plan.

A spokesperson for San Francisco International Airport said airdrome officials person not yet received thing circumstantial from Homeland Security astir a deployment of ICE agents. He said SFO information unit are not portion of TSA, and arsenic a result, nan airdrome has not had immoderate checkpoint backups.