Border Czar Tom Homan made an appearance on this Sunday’s State of the Union on CNN, and was asked about Trump’s threat to send his ICE thugs to airports across the country to supposedly help TSA agents with the long security lines caused by TSA staffing shortages following a partial government shutdown.
Trump announced those agents were going to deploy this Monday, although there’s no confirmation as to which airports they would be deployed at. When Dana Bash tried to pin Homan down on just how exactly any of this was going to work, Homan was short on specifics and had to admit that the ICE agents are not trained to handle most of the work TSA agents do, and they would not be operating any X-ray equipment.
BASH: President Trump posted on TRUTH Social — quote — “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.”
Now, in a subsequent post, he said that he instructed ICE agents to be ready by Monday. And now the president is saying that you, sir, are going to be in charge. How is that going to work? Are ICE agents going to move into American airports starting tomorrow, Monday?
HOMAN: Yes.
And I’m currently working on the plan now of execution, working with the director of ICE and administrator at TSA, the acting administrator. So we will put together a plan today and we will execute tomorrow.
BASH: OK, so there are a lot of questions here. First of all, are ICE agents even remotely trained to handle security at airports?
HOMAN: ICE agents receive a high level of training.
And ICE agents are assigned at many airports across the country already. They do a lot of investigation, criminal investigation on smuggling at airports. But there’s — you got TSA agents covering exits, people that enter through the exits.
Certainly, a highly trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit and makes sure people don’t go through those exits, entering the airport through the exits. And stuff like that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines.
BASH: OK.
HOMAN: So, wherever we can provide extra security — I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine, because we’re not trained in that.
But there are certain parts of security that TSA is doing that we can move them off those jobs, and put them in the specialized jobs to help move those lines.
Bash again tried to pin him down on what exactly they would be doing, and once again, Homan basically told her they’re still working on a concept of a plan, even though they’re planning on sending these people out the following day. These ICE agents aren’t even properly trained for their full time jobs they’re already supposed to be doing, but he wants us to believe they’ll somehow be helpful guarding airport entrances and exits, and by some miracle that’s going to make the security lines move faster.
BASH: OK, that was going to be my next question. So what you’re saying is, when you move ICE into airports, they are going to be just around the exits and the exteriors? They’re not going to be helping people get through the lines and screening people’s bags?
HOMAN: Those discussions are going on now. I’m not expert at TSA, so that’s why I’m talking to the TSA administrator and the ICE director to find out where we can fit in.
We will have a plan by the end of today, where we’re sending — what airports we’re starting with and where we’re sending them. But that’s the discussion we’re having right now. I ended the discussion to do this show and I will be back having those discussions when I finish.
So it’s a work in progress, but we will be at airports tomorrow helping TSA move those lines along.
BASH: And I know you said it’s a work in progress, but, at least at the beginning, are there airports that you’re — specific airports that you’re thinking about starting with? And how many ICE agents are you considering deploying to do this?
HOMAN: Again, that’s going based on the discussions we’re having today.
I think we need to — my opinion is that we concentrate on airports where the longest waits are. We prioritize those, the large airports where there’s a long wait, like three hours. I think we got to prioritize what we do, like we do everything else.
So, again, having those discussions, continued discussions after the show with the leadership of those agencies will lead us to some decisions based on prioritization, where we deploy, how quick we deploy, how many agents we deploy.
BASH: Right.
HOMAN: So, hopefully, we will have all those answers to everybody this afternoon, but we’re working on it. And when we deploy tomorrow, we will have a well-thought-out plan to execute.
BASH: With respect, if you’re doing this in 24 hours, how well thought out could it possibly be?
HOMAN: Again, ICE has been at airports across the country for a long time. It’s just expanding those things.
Look, it doesn’t — how much of a plan does it mean to guard an exit to make sure no one comes through that exit?
BASH: And…
HOMAN: I mean, we’re talking about security options.
And these officers are well-trained in security and they’re well- trained in identifications. And, look, we’re going to do what we can to help TSA move those people through the line.
They’re winging it to satisfy Trump, who probably just tossed this out there without talking to anyone. What a debacle. Bash asked Homan if they’re still going to do immigration enforcement while they’re supposedly helping TSA at the airports, and he said they were. What could possibly go wrong?
