As airport security lines lengthen and federal workers go unpaid, President Donald Trump on Saturday moved to escalate the standoff, announcing plans to deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports nationwide as a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security drags into its second month.
In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump said ICE would assume airport security duties beginning Monday if Democrats do not approve funding for the department. “If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before,” he wrote, adding that agents would carry out “the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country.”
He sharpened the warning in a follow-up message: “If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!” Trump added, “I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.'”
The partial DHS shutdown, caused by Democrats who don’t want to enforce the border, stretches back to mid-February and has left TSA officers working without pay for weeks, triggering widespread callouts, longer security lines, and mounting travel disruptions at airports across the country.
ICE, by contrast, remains funded and operational, buoyed by significant allocations from legislation enacted last year. Democrats have tied broader DHS funding to changes in ICE policy, including requirements that agents display identification and limits on face coverings during operations. Republicans have pushed alternative reforms, including body cameras, enhanced training, and restrictions on enforcement actions in sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals, and churches.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has argued that Democrats bear responsibility for the worsening conditions. “The situation at U.S. airports continues to worsen thanks to Democrats’ refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Thousands of Homeland Security employees have been working without pay for more than a month. The problems of having an unfunded Homeland Security Department continue to multiply, and Democrats, well, they just seem to shrug,” he said on the Senate floor.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused Republicans of leveraging the shutdown for policy concessions. “It is unacceptable for workers and travelers in entire airports to get taken hostage in political games, but that is what the Republicans are doing. It is unacceptable to say we will only pay TSA workers if it is attached to a bill that funds ICE with no reforms, but that’s what the Republicans have been doing. Democrats want to pay TSA workers ASAP with no strings attached,” he said.
Behind the scenes, negotiations have shown tentative movement. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has met with senators multiple times this week, though a planned Saturday evening session was delayed. Talks are expected to resume Sunday. The impasse comes as Trump has nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to lead DHS, with Secretary Kristi Noem set to depart at the end of March.
