The background to the statements is the dispute between Republicans and Democrats over the continued funding of the Department of Homeland Security.Image: keystone
March 21, 2026, 6:16 p.mMarch 21, 2026, 6:16 p.m
In view of a funding dispute that has been going on for weeks, US President Donald Trump has brought the immigration agency ICE into play at the country’s airports. The officials should carry out security measures on site “like they have never been seen before,” he wrote on his platform Truth Social, if the Democrats do not sign an agreement immediately.
The background to the statements is likely to be the dispute between Republicans and Democrats over the continued funding of the Department of Homeland Security. In addition to ICE, this also includes the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is responsible for security screening of passengers at airports. Several votes on a new financial package failed to achieve the necessary majority, meaning that the basis for paying some emergency services such as the TSA has been missing since mid-February.
Since then, Republicans and Democrats have been blaming each other for why there have been traffic jams in front of the security checkpoints at the country’s airports for days: Passengers in Atlanta or Houston, for example, waited for hours for a TSA check and missed their flights despite sufficient buffer time. The reason for this is that civil servants are currently not being paid as a result of the budget blockade and many have called in sick.
At US airports, the border protection agency Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is primarily responsible for immigration control, while the security screening of passengers is the responsibility of the TSA. So far, ICE officers have been used primarily in the interior of the country to deport migrants without residence permits. (sda/dpa)