The US president has called on immigration authorities to “focus” on apprehending Somali immigrants, a frequent target of ire.
President Donald Trump has threatened to send federal immigration agents to the nation’s airports to “do security like no one has ever seen.”
President Trump’s warning on Saturday comes as a partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security enters its fifth week.
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Congress missed a Feb. 14 deadline to fund vast departments, including agencies specializing in border security, counterterrorism operations, immigration and emergency management.
As a result, nearly 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees have been working without pay for several weeks.
This has led some airport security employees to call in sick or quit the TSA altogether. As a result, some airports around the country are experiencing long lines and delays.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump blamed Democrats for the impasse and threatened to use Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to replace airport security.
“If the radical left Democrats do not immediately sign a deal that makes our country, especially our airports, free and safe again, I will move our finest, patriotic ICE agents to our airports and provide security there like no one has ever seen before,” Trump wrote.
He added that ICE officers are tasked with “immediately apprehending all illegal immigrants who enter our country, especially those from Somalia.”
Since taking office for his second term, President Trump has led a violent crackdown on immigrants, legal and otherwise.
Somalis and Somali Americans have been particularly targeted by the Republican president’s ire. In early December, for example, he called them “garbage” and said they “don’t contribute anything.”
“We don’t want them in our country, let’s be honest,” President Trump said at the time. “There’s a reason their country is bad. Their country stinks. And we don’t want them in our country.”
Republican leaders revisited that sentiment in a social media post Saturday, again accusing Somalis of “totally destroying” the “once great state of Minnesota.”
Minnesota is home to the nation’s largest Somali-American community and is home to one of President Trump’s most prominent critics, Rep. Ilhan Omar, who came to the United States as a child refugee from Somalia.
The Midwestern state was recently targeted in a deadly immigration operation that left two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Preti, dead after being shot by agents.
The violence is at the heart of a standoff over the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), two agencies involved in recent deaths.
Democrats are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to reform immigration enforcement practices, including introducing rules that would require immigration agents to clearly identify themselves, end racial profiling and seek a judicial warrant before entering homes.
But Republicans argue these demands are non-starters. They also rejected a Democratic proposal to vote on funding TSA separately from funding for ICE and other immigration agencies.
To force Democrats to vote on homeland security funding, President Trump threatened not to sign any legislation passed by Congress. He has also repeatedly accused Democrats of preventing him from paying airport security workers.
The TSA announced that as of March 17, 366 Guard members had left their jobs.
No-shows have also skyrocketed, with TSA noting that the highest no-show rate was at Houston Hobby International Airport on March 14, when the no-show rate was 55 percent.
Industry analysts warn that absenteeism could increase the workload of remaining security personnel, making them more fatigued and less alert to threats.
But given that ICE officers do not receive the same training as TSA officers, it is unclear how the situation at airports will be improved. Critics also pointed to the risks of military operations in civilian spaces, such as airports, where families and elderly people are present.
“I look forward to seeing ICE in action at our nation’s airports,” President Trump said in the post.
