President Donald Trump is begging ICE agents to lower their masks and behave like other law enforcement officers as they interact with travelers in American airports starting Monday.
A rambling Trump, 79, pleaded with the agents to wear “NO MASKS” while deployed to assist TSA agents at 13 major airports, including those in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, and New York.
“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,” Trump began.
He eventually got to the point, adding, “I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports, etc.”
The White House did not respond to an email asking why Trump was OK with agents being masked while sowing chaos on American streets but not in its airports.
Federal agents have concealed their identity with masks and neck garters throughout MAGA 2.0, including when officers fatally shot two protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in January. Their rogue nature under Trump has led some, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, to refer to the agency as Trump’s “personal police force.”
ICE being permitted to conceal the identity of their agents has been widely criticized, and Democratic Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson went as far as to sign a pair of bills last week that prohibit federal agents from wearing masks in the state.
Trump said last week that he would deploy ICE to airports to assist TSA as the agency struggles with staffing shortages amid a partial government shutdown. Agents were sent to 13 airports on Monday morning.
TSA agents have been working without pay for over a month and are calling out at a record pace, causing airport chaos as travelers wait in security lines for as long as six hours, some report on social media.
It is not clear how ICE agents, who are not trained in airport screening, will help matters. Several DHS sources told CBS News over the weekend that the department, which oversees ICE, was blindsided by Trump’s order. One official said bluntly, “I have no idea what we’re doing.”
Images emerging Monday back up that anonymous official’s statement.
A viral photo on X shows an ICE officer standing behind a TSA agent, staring at her screen as she checks a passenger’s ID.
The poster, who was flying through Atlanta, wrote in follow-up posts that the ICE agent was “not scanning anything, they are looking at the screen after the person scans your ID.”
Other photos captured by Reuters photographers show ICE agents standing together in a group, not assisting TSA screening.
There have been no signs of relief at the airports to which ICE has been deployed. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport still have their security wait-time trackers disabled because the lines have become too long to quantify.
Airport officials in Atlanta are pleading with passengers to arrive at least four hours early. Those who do are still reporting that they are not making it through in time for their flights.
“We thought four hours would do it, and we still missed our flight,” an Atlanta traveler named Julie Curtis told CBS News. “You need to be here six hours early.”
For now, ICE has sent agents to Hartsfield-Jackson, JFK, Newark, LaGuardia Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport, Southwest Florida International Airport, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Pittsburgh International Airport, and Luis Munoz Marin International Airport.
