ICE agents to be deployed at US airports on Monday, Trump’s border czar Homan confirms

White House border czar Tom Homan on Sunday confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be deployed to airports across the United States on Monday, calling it an effort by the Trump administration to ease operations and long lines at the airports during one of the busiest travel seasons.

President Donald Trump had announced on Saturday that he will order federal immigration officers to take a role in security at the airports unless the Democrats agree on a bill which would fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes the Transportation Security Administration.

In a series of posts on Truth Social, the US president said he was planning to deploy ICE agents at the airports if the congressional standoff continues. The Republican leader had said, “ICE is ready to go on Monday.”

Trump said immigration agents would “do security like no one has ever seen before,” which would include “the immediate arrest of all illegal immigrants who have come into our country.”

Trump’s border czar Homan, during an interview with CNN on Sunday said that his agency was charting out plans for deployment at the airports and advocated in favour of ICE agents, saying they would help support security officials as thousands have gone without pay amid a partial government shutdown.

“It’s a work in progress, but we will be at airports tomorrow, helping TSA move those lines along,” Homan said.

According to Homan, ICE agents would majorly be deployed to those airports where there’s long wait times at security, prioritising ones with lines of about three hours. The border czar added that agency heads are still under discussion regarding how many agents to deploy, where to deploy and how swiftly they would be deployed.

“When we deploy them more, we’ll have a well-thought-out plan to execute,” Homan said, noting ICE agents were already at the airports and they were equipped to cover exit areas.