Border czar Tom Homan said Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would remain at airports until TSA officers are able to resume normal operations.
“We’re going to continue an ICE presence there, and until the airports feel like they’re in 100%, you know, in a posture where they can do normal operations,” Homan said in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “So if less TSA agents come back, that means we’ll keep more ICE agents there.”
His comments come days after President Donald Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to pay Transportation Security Administration officers as the partial shutdown continues. Homan said in a separate Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” that TSA officers will “hopefully” get paid by Monday or Tuesday.
Asked on CNN whether ICE agents would leave airports once TSA officers start getting paid, Homan said, “We’ll see.”
“It depends how many TSA agents come back to work, how many TSA agents have actually quit and have no plan of coming back to work. I’m working very closely with TSA administrator and the ICE director to decide what airport needs what,” he said.
“God bless the men women of ICE,” Homan continued, saying that ICE agents were “plugging those holes” at airports. Homan said that ICE agents were helping with tasks like identification checks and protecting exit lanes.
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Approximately 500 TSA workers have quit since the start of the shutdown, according to DHS. In addition, thousands of TSA workers have called out of work as the shutdown stretched on and TSA employees went without paychecks. The shortages have led to long wait times at security checkpoints across the country, with some of the hardest hit airports seeing hourslong lines.
A top TSA official testified before Congress last week that it takes approximately four to six months to train transportation security officers.
On Friday, House Republicans passed a short-term DHS funding bill that does not have enough support in the Senate to become law. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., rejected a Senate-passed bill that would have funded all of DHS except for immigration enforcement and deportation operations.
The DHS shutdown became the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history on Sunday, and there is no clear path forward for funding the department. The House and Senate are scheduled to be on recess for the next two weeks.
A source familiar with the ongoing negotiations over DHS funding told NBC News that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has sent guidance to his members that he is continuing to talk with Senate Democrats to see if there is some form of legislation they would agree to that would end the standoff.
Thune made it clear to his fellow Republicans that Senate Democrats have repeatedly rejected short-term funding plans for DHS that provide funding for ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, like the one the House passed. At this point, there is no plan to call the Senate back to session.
A spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blamed Republicans’ “division and intransigence” for the shutdown.
“Leader Schumer made clear that Democrats would not accept anything less than what was passed unanimously by the Senate. Speaker Johnson and House Republicans needlessly extended this DHS shutdown,” the spokesperson said. “Republicans shouldn’t look to Senate Democrats to fix their own internal caucus problems.”
