Trump threatens to deploy ICE to airports as TSA shortages drive delays

[IronLionZion]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/21/trump-threatens-deploy-ice-airports-tsa-shortages-drive-delays/
Archive link: https://archive.ph/vwCUh

Spring break travel is set to strain airports as rising callouts and resignations among unpaid TSA officers stretch security more than a month into the funding standoff.



President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to send U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports unless congressional Democrats agree to a GOP-backed funding deal, escalating a standoff that has already slowed security lines at airports nationwide.

In a post to Truth Social, Trump said the ICE agents would “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.”

Deploying agents to checkpoints nationwide would mark an unprecedented expansion of immigration enforcement even as Democrats push for tighter limits on how those agents operate, citing concerns the administration has fast-tracked training to expand ICE ranks.

“This is again an example, it seems to me, of the president seeking to utilize ICE in a way that achieves political goals, almost as a punishment,” said John Sandweg, a former acting director at ICE during the Obama administration. “The operations, to me, don’t seem to be designed to focus on public safety.”

What could go wrong?

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Has he ever been in an airport? Immigration and Customs process arrivals. TSA provides secrity for departures.

[IronLionZion]

3. That's Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), but close enough I guess

[RockRaven]

2. Do it.

It will make ICE goons miserable, and take them off the streets, albeit at the cost of air travelers having to deal with them. Win-win-lose. Net win.

[peacebuzzard]

5. they will be way too rough on the family and business traveler.

or maybe they will just prod the people in line to move it. This sounds like a winner. Piss off the folks working with no pay.
The up side is, it will take some of them off the streets just like you said

[Arazi]

8. Agreed. Very few undocumented people flying anyway

Get the goon squad off the streets and let them harass business travelers and families. Hope that brings reality to MAGAts who have been attempting to look away from their destruction.

[peacebuzzard]

4. ICE deployed because of long wait lines? Why not pay the TSA their wages due.

Make an emergency payment now. TSA has been working without pay for a couple of weeks.
And yes, the lines are longer and slower.
ICE wouldn't be appropriate here, either.

[SSJVegeta]

9. Stop paying ice and pay tsa...

Ice deployed to airports could cease rravel entirely and bankrupt airlines overnight.

If he wants to go that route I will laugh harder than already am

[peacebuzzard]

14. right you are...scare the rest of us away for a long while

what a sf

[D_Master81]

6. He just likes to make everyone miserable

Unless he gets everything exactly as he wants like the god king he thinks he is he just wants to make everyone miserable

[Srkdqltr]

7. Piss everyone off, thats a good thing

[leftstreet]

10. Send them to Iran! n/t

[ananda]

11. What good would that do... except make it worse?

Hmmm???

[Rebl2]

12. Our

TSA isn’t paid by the federal government in Kansas City, so agents here are getting paid. ICE better not show up at our airport. I believe I read the other day there are about 26 airports that don’t have federally paid TSA agents.

[B.See]

13. Let me fix the fourth paragraph

(from the excerpt) for 'em:

Deploying agents to checkpoints nationwide would mark an unprecedented expansion of Trump's campaign of domestic TERRORISM, even as Democrats push for tighter limits on how Trump's GESTAPO operates, citing concerns the administration has fast-tracked training to expand ICE ranks.

[allegorical oracle]

15. He's having one of his little-man tantrums. The economy's sinking, the war isn't really

going that well, and other nations are objecting to it.

The scary bit:
"In a post to Truth Social, Trump said the ICE agents would “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.”

So, does ICE go up and down the long lines demanding proof of citizenship? People won't have passports, necessarily, for domestic travel. Most people don't travel with their birth certificates. Is ICE going to yank people out of line who "look" Somalian?

Hope there's a big crowd of Repugs in those lines. Let them get a first-hand belly full of Trump's contempt for all of us.