U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White Home for Florida, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 20, 2026.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to ship federal immigration brokers to U.S. airports until congressional Democrats instantly conform to fund the Division of Homeland Safety.
“I’ll transfer our good and patriotic ICE Brokers to the Airports the place they are going to do Safety like nobody has ever seen earlier than,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. The Trump administration has confronted heavy criticism for aggressive deportation techniques by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol brokers.
Trump claimed ICE brokers dealing with airport safety would arrest immigrants who’re within the U.S. illegally, particularly concentrating on people from Somalia.
In a separate post later within the day, Trump mentioned he plans to maneuver ICE brokers into airports as quickly as Monday, telling them to “GET READY.”
“I stay up for shifting ICE in on Monday, and have already instructed them to, ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!” he wrote.
When requested for remark, the White Home referred to Trump’s social media. DHS didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s requests for remark.
A bipartisan group of senators met with DHS border czar Tom Homan final night time to debate further immigration enforcement concessions made by the White Home on Friday in an try to finish the partial government shutdown, POLITICO reported, citing lawmakers in attendance.
The Senate is in session Saturday and Sunday, engaged on different legislative points, however it’s unclear whether or not additional talks or a vote on the brand new DHS funding proposal will happen.
Democrats are demanding changes to how federal immigration enforcement operates in trade for releasing the funding. The White Home and Democrats have been buying and selling proposals for over a month however haven’t but come to an settlement on a deal.
The DHS shutdown has been much less disruptive than final yr’s record-long authorities shutdown. However since a lot of DHS is taken into account important, workers are required to work with out pay.
The results of the funding lapse and lack of pay are being felt at U.S. airports, the place Transportation Security Administration brokers are quitting or calling out sick. DHS workers missed their first full paychecks final week.
The scarcity of brokers has induced obscenely long lines at safety checkpoints, together with in Atlanta and Houston, the place spring break journey is in full swing.
“If a deal is not lower, you are going to see what’s occurring at this time appear like kid’s play,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN on Friday. Earlier within the week, Duffy warned that smaller airports may shut down fully quickly on account of staffing.
In a separate put up earlier within the day, Tesla CEO and former Trump advisor Elon Musk mentioned he wish to cowl the paychecks of TSA officers because the shutdown continues.
“I wish to provide to pay the salaries of TSA personnel throughout this funding deadlock that’s negatively affecting the lives of so many People at airports all through the nation,” Musk, the world’s richest man, mentioned in a post on X.
Musk didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The typical wage for TSA brokers is about $46,000 to $55,000, in keeping with a latest Related Press report.
It is unclear how such a proposal would work.
Final yr, Trump introduced a rich, unnamed donor offered $130 million to assist cowl navy pay shortfalls brought on by the administration’s first authorities shutdown, the longest in historical past. That thriller donor was revealed to be Timothy Mellon, an inheritor to a famend Gilded Age banking household, The New York Times later reported.
However Mellon’s donation labored out to solely about $100 per service member. It prices almost $6.4 billion to pay U.S. troops each two weeks. And such a donation may need violated the Antideficiency Act, which bars federal businesses from spending funds that haven’t been appropriated by Congress, the Instances reported.
— Annie Nova and Dan Mangan contributed reporting
