President Donald Trump on Saturday said he will deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs agents at airports on Monday if Senate Democrats will not come to their senses and fund the Transportation Security Administration.
The ongoing partial government shutdown — led by Democrats hoping to drastically alter DHS immigration enforcement policy — has left many airports across the country understaffed, which has in turn led to increasingly long wait times for travelers.
“The Radical Left Democrats have hurt so many people with their vicious and uncaring ways. What they have done to the Department of Homeland Security, our fantastic TSA Officers, and, most importantly, the great people of our Country, is an absolute disgrace,” Trump wrote.
“If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!
“The Fascist Democrats will never protect America, but the Republicans will. Just like the Radical Left allowed millions of Criminals to pour into our Country through their ridiculous and dangerous Open Border Policy, the Republicans closed it all down, and we now have the Strongest Border in American History.”
“Likewise, I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!” Trump added.
In a separate post, Trump wrote, “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, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia, who have totally destroyed, with the approval of a corrupt Governor, Attorney General, and Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, the once Great State of Minnesota.”
“I look forward to seeing ICE in action at our Airports,” he added.
Earlier Saturday, Elon Musk offered a solution to ensure Transportation Security Administration agents are paid as Senate Democrats hold their salaries hostage.
“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 posted on X.
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
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2026
The mechanics of the concept could be daunting, as noted by The Hill.
Federal law generally does not allow federal employees to be paid from an outside source for the work they do as part of the jobs.
One Democrat was on board.
“This is incredibly generous. TSA agents across the country are relying on food pantries and community donations just to get by,” Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania posted on X.
“I remain the lone Dem to vote with my Republican colleagues to fully fund DHS and get people paid. It should never come to this point.”
Senate Democrats, who are holding Department of Homeland Security funding hostage unless they can reshape immigration operations in their image, failed Saturday to fund the TSA while leaving other parts of the department unfunded, according to Fox News.
With a congressional recess looming, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that it would be “very, very hard to explain if we leave town this next week without having funded the Department of Homeland Security.”
“At some point the Democrats are going to be held accountable for this,” Thune said.
“I know they think it’s, as has been described by one of their leaders, ‘very serene, very serene’ with their position… Well, I’m telling you something, the people who are sitting in those lines at the airports right now don’t see it as very serene. This needs to be resolved.”
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