The White House border czar, Tom Homan, confirmed that the United States will deploy immigration agents (ICE) starting Monday morning to alleviate the workload of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), whose employees have not been paid since February.
In an interview with the CNN program ‘State of the Union’, Homan assured that this measure will help the TSA “accomplish its mission and help the American public pass through airports as quickly as possible, respecting all security regulations and protocols.”
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, threatened to entrust this task to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) if the Democrats do not approve funding the TSA, whose officials have not been paid since February due to the Democratic boycott against the president’s aggressive immigration policy.
In a second message published on his Truth Social network, the Republican assured that he has already instructed ICE to appear at airports tomorrow, Monday: “I look forward to the arrival of ICE on Monday, and I have already told them: ‘Get ready!'” he wrote.
Homan said the agents will help the TSA “do its job in areas that do not require specialized knowledge.”
“There are roles we can play to free TSA agents from non-essential tasks, like guarding an exit, so they can get back to the scanning machines and get people through more quickly,” he explained.
It should be noted that the Senate rejected on Friday, for the fifth time since February, funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been in partial closure for five weeks and on which TSA and immigration agencies depend.
The suspension of payroll payments for TSA workers has led many to ask for leave or be fired, causing very long lines at important US airports such as Atlanta, JFK in New York or New Orleans.
The Democrats’ refusal to fund DHS arose after two Minneapolis citizens were shot dead by federal agents in January, within the framework of the massive immigration raids activated by the Trump Government in the state of Minnesota.
