Donald Trump threatened on Saturday to send the immigration police (ICE) to carry out security checks at American airports, where the wait can last hours due to a lack of specialized agents, who are not paid due to a partial budgetary paralysis.
“If far-left Democrats do not immediately sign a deal to make our country, especially our airports, free and safe again, I will deploy our brilliant and patriotic ICE agents to airports where they will handle security like never before,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network.
Since February 14, funding for DHS – the department responsible in particular for security checks at airports – has been frozen due to the deep dispute between Democrats and Republicans in Congress over immigration police practices, which are highly contested on the left.
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Due to this partial “shutdown”, thousands of federal DHS civil servants have been placed on technical unemployment, while thousands of others, in functions considered essential, continue to work. In both cases, salaries will not be paid until lawmakers agree on a budget for DHS, on which ICE depends.
The approximately 50,000 officials of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), responsible for controls at airports, have no longer been paid in full since March 13. As a result of this situation, absenteeism increased in their ranks – some to work elsewhere while waiting for parliamentarians to reach an agreement – while others resigned.
As a result, queues at security checks – where passengers must pass through metal detection gates – have lengthened and it is not uncommon to now have to wait several hours in American airports to go through this step and reach the boarding lounge. Immigration police continue to operate for the duration of the blockage, due to funds already approved last year by Congress.
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The TSA itself had warned that a prolonged paralysis could cause staff shortages with “notable consequences at airports, including delays, longer wait times, and flight cancellations”. Multi-billionaire Elon Musk offered on Saturday on X to pay the salaries of these TSA agents “during the budget impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports across the country.” According to various estimates, the average annual salary of these agents is $50,000 to $60,000, or between $2.5 and $3 billion budget for an entire year.
Donald Trump also warned on Saturday that if ICE agents were indeed deployed at airport checkpoints, they would “immediately arrest any immigrant who entered our country illegally, with particular attention to those coming from Somalia.”
The Democrats justify their budget blockage by the actions of ICE, on which they want to impose significant restrictions. Their opposition to the practices of this agency only grew after the deaths within a few weeks of each other in January of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two Americans shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis (Minnesota). Their death sparked major protests across the country.
At the end of 2025, the Trump administration took up a vast case of public aid fraud affecting the Somali community of this northern state – the largest in the country with around 80,000 members – to attack it and increase ICE operations in Minneapolis.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a global news agency. It is one of the sources of international information that 20 minutes uses.
