Donald Trump said on Monday that ICE agents deployed to the nation’s airports would go maskless after his administration deployed hundreds of agents to major cities to deal with a worsening shortage of TSA agents.
His statement came as his administration is struggling to deal with the effects of a DHS shutdown that is now in its second month. Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have been unable to strike a deal to fund the agency as Democrats have demanded a slate of reforms to Trump’s immigration enforcement programs in exchange for their votes. As of yet, the White House and GOP majorities in Congress haven’t budged.
On Monday morning, the president wrote on Truth Social: “I am a BIG proponent of ICE wearing masks as they search for, and are forced to deal with, hardened criminals, many of whom were let into our Country by Sleepy Joe Biden and his wonderful “Border Czar,” Kamala (she never even went to the Border!), through their absolutely INSANE Open Border Policy.”
“I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports, etc. Thank you!” he then added.
Speaking to reporters in a gaggle before departing Palm Beach, Florida on Air Force One, the president said that he spoke to his border czar Tom Homan and told him that he didn’t think masks were “appropriate” when ICE was interacting with the general population, but remained important for the agency to use when dealing with undocumented immigrants — whom he referred to as “murderers” and “thugs”.
“I’ve requested now, now you know I’m a big believer that they should be able to wear masks when they go knock down, you know, murderers, criminals and others. But for purposes of the airport, I’ve requested that they take off the masks. I don’t like it for the airport, and I believe they are willing to do that,” said Trump. “The people coming into the airport, typically speaking, aren’t murderers, killers, drug dealers, et cetera.”
For nearly two months the Department of Homeland Security has been in shutdown mode due to congressional inaction on legislation to fund the agency. Democrats have repeatedly offered legislation to fund parts of the department, to no avail.
Among the reforms Democrats posed to their Republican colleagues last month were an end to ICE agents using masks while on enforcement operations, as well as an end to roving enforcement “raids” altogether and the requirement that agents obtain a judicial warrant before carrying out searches of private property.
At the beginning of last week agents at TSA missed their first full paychecks of the shutdown. Call-outs surged nationwide, and security screening lines quickly piled up at airports including Houston, Atlanta and dozens of others, though wait times appeared to be sporadic and inconsistent. While some airports reported hours-long waits for TSA pre-check and standard entry, others reported no wait times at all.
The agency’s acting director told journalists last week that some individual airports could be forced to shutter temporarily if the agency can’t staff TSA checkpoints at every location.
New York’s LaGuardia Airport was also forced to close on Monday due to a fatal collision between an Air Canada flight and a Port Authority vehicle that was crossing the runway. The pilot and co-pilot of the flight were reported killed, and dozens of others are being treated for injuries.
