ICE agents descend on US airport Monday morning after Trump threatened to deploy them
ICE agents have been spotted at multiple airports across the country following President Donald Trump’s threats to mobilise them amid staff shortages caused by a partial government shutdown.
Transportation Security Administration staff have been working without pay for weeks as a government funding deal expired five weeks ago.
President Trump said he would be deploying ICE agents to airports this week, vowing to guarantee “security like no one has ever seen before.”
The agents, he said, would also carry out “the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia.”
ICE agents were seen on Monday at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport.
However, experts told The Independent that the deployment would be essentially useless as TSA staff primarily review X-ray images of luggage and conduct respectful pat-down searches of travelers.
Trump administration officials were unable to explain whether there was a coherent plan to follow in media interviews in the aftermath of the President’s announcement.
