Trump announced that he will send ICE agents to the airports on Monday to reinforce security

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he will deploy agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at US airports starting Monday to reinforce Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff, amid a partial government shutdown that has lasted more than five weeks and has generated long lines at the country’s main terminals.

“On Monday, ICE will be going to the airports to help our great TSA agents who have been working,” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.

The announcement confirmed the threat that the president himself had launched on Saturday, when he warned that he would deploy ICE agents if the Democrats in Congress did not immediately agree to fund airport security. After no agreement was reached during an unusual weekend legislative session, Trump seemed determined to follow through on what he had announced. “ICE is ready to go on Monday,” he said on Saturday. The president did not specify in his publications how ICE agents —a force specialized in immigration control— will assume functions in airport security nor what specific role they will play alongside the TSA, whose mission is to screen passengers and luggage for dangerous items.

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Trump also suggested that the agents sent to the airports will focus on arresting undocumented immigrants, with special emphasis on Somali citizens. “If the Democrats do not allow fair and adequate security at our airports and other places in our country, ICE will do the job better than it has ever been done,” he said on Saturday.

The partial government shutdown has been in effect since February 14, when Congress failed to approve funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The vast majority of TSA employees are considered essential and have continued to work without pay throughout that period. Absenteeism rates have increased at several airports, and the DHS reported that at least 376 agents have resigned since the interruption began.

Democrats have blocked DHS funding demanding changes after an ICE immigration operation in Minnesota that resulted in the fatal shootings of two protesters. Among their demands are better identification for federal law enforcement officers, a new code of conduct for those agencies, and greater use of warrants before raids. Republicans, on the other hand, insist that funding must cover the entirety of DHS and not just some areas. A bill to fund the department failed to advance in the Senate on Friday, and on Saturday the House also rejected a Democratic motion to reopen the TSA and pay its workers.

Negotiation Signals

Despite the stagnation, **in recent days there were signs of progress.** Republican and Democratic senators met for the third consecutive day with White House officials in closed-door sessions, and the Democratic leader of the Senate, **Chuck Schumer**, described the **conversations as “productive.”**

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The leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, John Thune, urged the bipartisan group to act urgently. “If that group that meets can’t find a solution very quickly, things are going to get worse and worse,” he warned on Saturday. The deployment announced by Trump adds political pressure to negotiations that have failed to unblock the funding of the DHS, while passengers continue to face delays in security checks at the country’s busiest airports.