Washington [US], March 22: US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of deploying the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency at the country's airports amid a funding dispute with the opposition Democrats.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump said that if the Democrats do not "immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again," he would order ICE agents to "do security like no one has even seen before."
Trump warned that the measures could begin on Monday and would include the "immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country."
The background to the posts is the dispute between Republicans and Democrats over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.
Several votes on a new funding package have failed to secure the necessary majority in the Senate, meaning that since mid-February there has been no legal basis for paying certain emergency services such as the TSA.
Republicans and Democrats have been blaming each other for the queues that have been forming for days at security checkpoints across the country's airports.
Passengers in airports such as Atlanta and Houston have waited for hours for a TSA check and missed their flights despite allowing ample time. As a result of the budget deadlock, officers are currently not being paid and many have taken sick leave.
At US airports, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency is primarily responsible for immigration checks, whilst passenger security screening is the responsibility of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Until now, ICE officers have mainly been deployed inland to carry out deportations of migrants without residence permits.
Source: Qatar Tribune
