The US president called on immigration agents to place ‘heavy emphasis’ on the arrests of Somali immigrants, a frequent target of his ire.
United States President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy federal immigration agents to the country’s airports to “do Security like no one has ever seen”.
Trump’s warning on Saturday arrived on the five-week mark of a partial government shutdown that affects the Department of Homeland Security.
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Congress missed a February 14 deadline to fund the sprawling department, which includes agencies dedicated to border security, anti-terrorism operations, immigration services and emergency management.
As a result, nearly 50,000 employees at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have been working for weeks without pay.
That has prompted some airport security agents to call in sick or quit the TSA entirely. The result has been long lines and delays at some of the country’s airports.
In his post on Truth Social, Trump blamed Democrats for the impasse and threatened to use Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to conduct airport security instead.
“If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before,” Trump wrote.
He then added that he would task the ICE agents with “the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia“.
Since taking office for a second term, Trump has led a violent crackdown on immigration, legal and otherwise.
Somalis and Somali Americans have been a particular target of the Republican president’s ire. In early December, for instance, he called them “garbage” and said they “contribute nothing”.
“I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you,” Trump said at the time. “Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks. And we don’t want them in our country.”
The Republican leader revisited that sentiment in Saturday’s social media post, once again accusing Somalis of having “totally destroyed” what he called “the once Great State of Minnesota”.
Minnesota has the largest Somali American community in the US, and it is also the home state of one of Trump’s most prominent critics, Representative Ilhan Omar, who came to the US as a child refugee from Somalia.
The Midwestern state was recently the subject of a deadly immigration operation that killed two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in shootings by agents.
That violence is at the heart of the stalemate over the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the two agencies involved in the recent deaths.
Democrats have called for the Homeland Security Department to reform its immigration enforcement practices, including by implementing rules to require agents to clearly identify themselves, stop racial profiling and seek judicial warrants before entering homes.
Republicans, however, have called those demands non-starters. They have also rejected Democratic proposals to vote on funding for the TSA separately from funding for ICE and other immigration agencies.
To force Democrats to vote for Homeland Security funding, Trump has threatened not to sign any legislation that Congress passes. He has also repeatedly accused Democrats of preventing airport security agents from getting paid.
As of March 17, the TSA has reported that 366 security officers have quit their jobs.
Absences have also spiked: The TSA noted that the highest rate came at Houston Hobby International Airport on March 14, when the callout rate was 55 percent.
Industry analysts warn that the absences put increased strain on the remaining security officers, who might be more tired and less alert to threats.
It is unclear, however, how ICE agents would improve current conditions at the airport, given that they do not have the same training as TSA agents. Critics also pointed to the risk of militarised actions in civilian spaces like airports, where families and the elderly are present.
“I look forward to seeing ICE in action at our Airports,” Trump wrote in his post.
