President Trump vowed to replace Transportation Security Administration officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — unless Congress strikes an agreement to reopen the partially shuttered Department of Homeland Security.
“If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
“I look forward to seeing ICE in action at our Airports. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he concluded, signing off with his name.
Trump’s social media threat came less than 24 hours after a bill that would have funded DHS — and provided payments for TSA agents working in airports — failed to advance in the Senate on Friday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has since fired back at the president, announcing on social media Saturday that he would offer an alternative measure during a weekend session to fund only the TSA.
“Republicans Senators will be forced on the record: they can either vote to fund TSA for good or be fully responsible for its continued shutdown,” he wrote on X.
The TSA, made up of some 50,000 employees, has been forced to work without pay since a temporary DHS funding bill expired five weeks ago. As a result, more and more TSA officers are calling out sick or quitting altogether because they cannot afford to continue working without pay. And that means the chaos at airports across America is only getting worse, with travelers forced to wait in hours-long lines due to the staffing shortage.
With News Wire Services
