USA Budget blockade: Trump threatens to deploy ICE at airports
In view of the weeks-long dispute over the continued funding of the Department of Homeland Security, US President Donald Trump has brought the deployment of the immigration authority ICE at airports into play.
22.03.2026, 00:32
SDA
The officers should carry out on-site security measures "like you've never seen before", he wrote on his Truth Social platform, should the Democrats not sign an agreement immediately.
The operation could begin as early as Monday, Trump announced in another post. He emphasized that he had already spoken to the authorities. This should take care of security at the airports "better than ever before". "GET READY," he wrote in quotation marks. It was initially unclear whether the controversial authority would actually be deployed or whether Trump's words would have no consequences.
Long queues at the country's airports for days
The background to the statements is likely to be the dispute between Republicans and Democrats over the continued funding of the Department of Homeland Security. In addition to ICE, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is responsible for passenger security checks at airports, is also under the Department of Homeland Security. Several votes on a new financial package failed to achieve the necessary majority, which means that since mid-February there has been no basis for paying some emergency services such as the TSA. In addition to ICE and TSA, the Ministry is also responsible for the Fema emergency services and the Coast Guard.
Since then, Republicans and Democrats have been blaming each other for the days-long traffic jams at security checkpoints at the country's airports: passengers in Atlanta and Houston, for example, have been waiting for hours for a TSA checkpoint and have missed their flights despite having enough buffer time. Due to the budget blockade, the officers are currently not being paid and many have called in sick as a result.
ICE operation brings back traumatic memories
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is primarily responsible for immigration control at US airports, while passenger security checks are the responsibility of the TSA. ICE officers have so far mainly been deployed in the interior of the country to deport undocumented migrants and have made negative headlines due to their rigorous approach to raids. At the beginning of the year, two Americans died when US forces shot at them.
Kristi Noem came under fire in the debate about the proportionality of the ICE officers' actions in Minneapolis in the US state of Minnesota, for example. Trump dismissed the Secretary of Homeland Security at the beginning of the month - partly because a multi-million dollar advertising campaign and an alleged love affair with one of her closest advisors proved to be her undoing. She will now be replaced by former Senator Markwayne Mullin, who is said to have a more moderate leadership style.
