Border czar Tom Homan has confirmed that ICE will be deployed at airports beginning Monday—and that there’s currently no plan or extra training in place for the rollout.
Homan, 64, appeared on State of the Union Sunday, with host Dana Bash reading from Truth Social rambles in which President Trump swore that ICE “will do security like no one has ever seen before,” with Homan in charge of the project. “How is that going to work? Are ICE agents going to move into American airports starting tomorrow, Monday?” she asked.
“Yes, and I’m currently working on the plan now,” Homan confirmed. “Execution, working with the director of ICE and the administrator at TSA, the acting administrator. So we’ll put together a plan today and we’ll execute tomorrow.”
Homan batted away Bash’s concerns that ICE agents weren’t specially trained for the job of TSA, and danced around questions of what roles the often-masked agents would actually be filling within U.S. airports.
“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, find out where we can fit in,” he said.
Security wait times are currently hitting as high as two hours at some airports. TSA agents missed their first full paycheck in a partial shutdown over a Department of Homeland Security funding dispute between Democrats and Republicans.
“We’ll have a plan by the end of today where we’re sending—what airports we’re starting with and where we’re sending them,“ Homan continued. ”But that’s a discussion we’re having right now.”
Later in the conversation, Homan again referenced his tight deadline. “Hopefully, we’ll have all those answers here by this afternoon, but we’re working on it. And when we deploy tomorrow, we’ll have a well-thought-out plan to execute,” he summarized.
Bash seemed nonplussed by the timeframe, asking: “With respect, if you’re doing this in 24 hours, how well thought-out could it possibly be?”
Homan pursed his lips in response, before retorting: “Again, ICE has been at airports across the country for a long time. It’s just expanding those things.”
He flippantly added: “Look, how much of a plan does it mean to to guard an exit, to make sure no one comes through that exit?
“We‘re talking about security options. And these officers are well-trained in security, and they’re well-trained in identification. And we’re going to do what we can to help TSA move those people through the line.”
In Trump’s Truth Social post shared Saturday, the president suggested that ICE would be doing more than helping with queue management.
His post detailed that the agents would carry out “the immediate arrest of all illegal immigrants who have come into our country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia...”
However, it seems that airports might have concerns beyond Trump’s fixation on Somalis. Airlines are currently preparing for huge—and imminent—fuel shortages if Trump’s war with Iran continues further, while the DHS shutdown responsible for mass queues and delays is showing no sign of an immediate end.
