chairman donald trump confirmed it Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents deployed at American airports have the power to arrest.illegal immigrants” He described airports as “very fertile territory” for such enforcement actions.
Donald Trump talks about ICE agents arresting ‘illegal immigrants’
Comments came like this administration deployed The Transportation Security Administration has been dispatched to 150 ICE officers at airports across the country due to staffing shortages during the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One on March 23, President Donald Trump answered questions about ICE’s role at airports. When asked if travelers would see ICE arresting undocumented immigrants at airport facilities, Trump responded in the affirmative.
“Yeah, that’s why the Democrats are going crazy because what they did and held back, they allowed it to happen,” Trump said. “We have ICE, which is very high-level. I mean, they’re a really high-level group of people and they love it because they’re now able to arrest illegal people as soon as they come into the country. It’s a very fertile area but that’s not what they’re there for. They’re really there to help (through) fox news).”
Nearly 50,000 TSA officers have worked without pay since Feb. 14, when funding for DHS ended amid a congressional impasse over immigration policy. Financial stress has led to an increase in call-outs and resignations. DHS reported Monday that more than 400 officers have walked off the job since the shutdown began, with Sunday seeing the highest call-out rate so far at nearly 12%.
Now, unlike TSA personnel, ICE officers continue to receive salaries because Congress separately funded the immigration enforcement agencies for the current fiscal year. ICE officers have been seen at major airports, including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare, LaGuardia, JFK, Newark Liberty and William P. Hobby airports in Houston.
the new York Times Described agents walking through terminals in small groups and standing near exits, observing rather than actively checking passengers. Finally, Trump’s ICE deployment has not yet shown a measurable impact on wait times.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu Mandatory.