Rights Groups, Dems Warn of Disaster as Trump Sends ICE Agents to US Airports

Democratic lawmakers and civil liberties advocates are warning that President Donald Trump’s decision to send US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports across the country could have disastrous consequences, particularly given the agency’s deadly conduct on the ground in American cities in recent months.

Trump announced on Sunday that he would be sending ICE agents to airports to assist in security operations, as many Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers have been either quitting or calling out amid a partial US government shutdown that has left them to work without pay.

Naureen Shah, director of policy and government affairs for immigration at the ACLU, expressed significant concerns about sending ICE to airpots, and she said it could further harm Americans' civil liberties.

"Never in our history has a president deployed armed agents to the airport to inspire fear among families," said Shah. "The American people don’t want to live in White House advisor Stephen Miller’s dystopian police state. ICE and other federal agents have already shown the cost to us all when the president deploys them on his whim to act as a domestic policing force."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also warned of potentially disastrous consequences from having ICE conduct airport security.

"ICE agents at airports will only aggravate delays and lines—disrupting checks, interrogating travelers, dragging parents from children, detaining citizens, brutalizing families, shooting, and even killing," he wrote. "Brutal, lawless tactics common in communities across the country by masked, unidentified agents, violating basic rights—no way to help TSA or travelers."

While Democratic lawmakers publicly condemn the move, journalist Rachel Bade reported on Monday that some Democrats believe that the optics deploying ICE agents at US airports will be terrible for the White House and will simply add to the chaos and turmoil experienced by American fliers.

"Great—do it!” one senior Democratic official told Bade. “Let’s fuck around and find out.”

A second Democratic source predicted to Bade that "armed agents at airports will crush tourism and freak people out," while a third sarcastically requested that the president send fully masked ICE agents to handle airport security.

Bade added that Democrats see the decision to send ICE agents to airports as a panic move by a White House that wants to try anything to get videos of long airport check-in lines out of the news.

Because of this, Bade said, they feel "emboldened" to further squeeze Republicans on making reforms to ICE.

"Democrats say the move shows they’re winning," wrote Bade. "In past shutdowns, presidents have tried to ramp up the pain during closures, thus putting pressure on the opposition party causing the shutdown. Here, Trump has done the exact opposite, seeking a workaround to alleviate concerns."

Democratic lawmakers aren't the only ones predicting Trump's ICE gambit will blow up in his face.

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, told NPR on Sunday that it was likely that ICE agents would make the situations at airports even worse.

"ICE agents are not trained or certified in aviation security," said Kelley, who added that TSA workers "deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be."

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, also welcomed the move to deploy ICE to airports, as he said it would leave fewer masked agents roaming the streets to round up immigrant families.

"To me, this does a lot more to slow down ICE than anything," he wrote in a social media post. "I'll take that deal."

Although Trump has tried to pin blame for chaos at US airports solely on Democrats, Punchbowl News reported that the president on Sunday shot down a proposal from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to fund all of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) except for ICE, a move that would at least get TSA agents paid and end chaos at airports.

"Trump said no, according to multiple sources," wrote Punchbowl News. "The president wants Republicans to stay in DC and keep fighting with Democrats over DHS funding and the SAVE America Act, the GOP’s voter ID and proof-of-citizenship bill. Not only that, Trump warned that he’d publicly slam Senate Republicans if they left town for the upcoming recess."