A day after a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security failed in the Senate for a fifth time, President Donald Trump threatened to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Monday to airports across the nation to conduct security screenings if a deal is not reached to address to appropriations lapse. 

What You Need To Know

  • A day after a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security failed in the Senate for a fifth time, President Donald Trump threatened Saturday to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports across the nation to conduct security screenings if a deal is not reached

  • “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,” the president wrote on his Truth social site

  • His message came as long lines have been forming for security screenings at some airports throughout the U.S.

  • In a second post, he wrote that he was looking forward "to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, 'GET READY'"

“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,” the president wrote on his Truth social site Saturday. 

In a second post, he wrote that he was looking forward "to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, 'GET READY.'"

His messages came as long lines have been forming for security screenings at some airports throughout the U.S.

Transportation Security Administration workers – who fall under DHS and are mostly considered essential, meaning the vast majority are required to work even amid a shutdown – have been calling out of work. About 10% of TSA officers nationwide missed work each day between Monday and Wednesday, the department reported Thursday. 

TSA workers missed their first paycheck last week, and will not receive a second one on Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said during an interview with Fox News on Saturday.

Several TSA workers described to Spectrum News this week how they were relying on things like food drives, gift cards and financial help from family in the interim. 

“They are paying rent, and are trying to put food on the table,” Duffy said during the interview. “They can’t actually make ends meet during this time so they are going, listen, ‘I’m going to pick a different career path,’ and they go somewhere else.”   

DHS blamed the partial government shutdown for the departure of more than 360 TSA workers from the agency as of earlier this week.

The Homeland Security department has not been fully funded since Feb. 13, when lawmakers let appropriations for the department lapse and have since not come to an agreement over immigration enforcement demands made by Democrats. 

After two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal agents in January during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Democrats called for nearly a dozen changes to ICE procedures, including requirements that officers display ID badges, wear body cameras, not cover their faces with masks and obtain judicial warrants before entering private property.

While the House passed its bill to restore funding to DHS, a companion bill in the Senate has not been able to clear the 60-vote threshold. 

The Associated Press reported that White House border czar Tom Homan was working behind the scenes to resolve the standoff Friday. 

Republicans have rejected Democrats’ proposal to fund several agencies within DHS, including the TSA, while lawmakers work to hammer out an agreement on immigration enforcement, with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., describing Democrats' demands this week as an effort akin to seeking to defund the police. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York brought a motion to the floor Saturday afternoon to reopen TSA and pay the workers who have been missing their salaries because of the now-36-day shutdown. But, his attempt was rejected. Republicans contend that all of the DHS needs to be funded, not just parts. 

In his post Saturday, Trump also said that he would direct ICE officers to arrest “all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country” with a particular focus on people from Somalia.

The president did not provide additional information about logistics or timeline in his messages, and it was not clear if ICE officers would imminently be moved into airports.

Requests for comment and additional information by Spectrum News about Trump's proposed deployment of ICE officers to airports made to the DHS, ICE and the TSA were not immediately returned. The federal Department of Transportation referred an inquiry back to the DHS.

The DHS also did not immediately return a request for response about Elon Musk saying in a post on X on Saturday he would cover TSA workers’ checks during the shutdown.

“I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country,” Musk wrote.