Black Monday for travelers in the United States has arrived. What started as a threat from President Donald Trump materialized today: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are already deployed in terminals to try to save the collapse of the TSA.
Border Czar” Tom Homan confirmed that “hundreds of officers” have been dispatched to strategic points to manage crowds and monitor exits, tasks that TSA employees – who have not been paid since February – can no longer perform.
These are the airports where ICE is located
The U.S. government deployed ICE agents to the country’s airports on Monday to ease the workload of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
White House border czar Tom Homan said Monday that ICE officers were dispatched to 14 U.S. airports.
According to CNN and NBC News reports, this is the list of airports with ICE presence:
New York/New Jersey: JFK, Newark and Philadelphia.
Florida: Southwest International.
Louisiana: Louis Armstrong (New Orleans).
Illinois: Chicago-O’Hare.
Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh.
Georgia: Atlanta (where the mayor has already come out to say that “it is not for hunting migrants”… but the doubt remains).
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told NBC News that Trump is “taking steps to deploy hundreds of ICE agents to airports that are adversely affected.”
Homan explained Sunday that ICE will help TSA “do its job in areas that don’t require specialized expertise,” such as guarding an exit, managing queues or controlling crowds.
For his part, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens clarified that federal officials had informed him that this deployment “is not intended to carry out immigration enforcement activities”.
War of declarations: “Hostages of political games”.
The measure has inflamed the Democratic wing.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it “unacceptable” for travelers to be used as hostages.
For her part, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was blunt: “Sending untrained agents is not a solution.”
Tom Homan, from the White House, did not remain silent and blamed the opposition directly.
“Democrats are punishing the men and women of the TSA because they don’t like the law being enforced,” said the so-called ‘Border Czar’.
TSA officials have not been paid since February because of the Democratic boycott against the President’s aggressive immigration policy.
The Senate on Friday rejected, for the fifth time since February, funding for DHS, which has been in a partial shutdown for five weeks and on which TSA and immigration agencies depend.
The suspension of TSA workers’ paychecks has led many to take sick leave or be laid off, causing very long lines at major U.S. airports such as Atlanta, New York’s JFK and New Orleans.
Would you trust an ICE agent to help you with your bag, or would you prefer the government to just pay the TSA?
Filed under: List of airports with ICE presence
