❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump instructed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents assisting at airports during the government shutdown not to wear masks.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Trump, ICE agents, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
📍WHEN & WHERE: Announced on Truth Social on Monday amid the ongoing partial government shutdown, affecting airports across the United States.
💬KEY QUOTE: “I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports, etc. Thank you!” – President Trump
🎯IMPACT: Over the weekend, Democrat lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-MD) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), bizarrely claimed that ICE agents may shoot American airline passengers.
President Donald J. Trump announced on Truth Social that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would be deployed to assist the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at airports across the United States during the partial government shutdown. On Monday morning, Trump instructed these agents not to wear masks while on duty at their respective airports.
“I am a BIG proponent of ICE wearing masks as they search for, and are forced to deal with, hardened criminals, many of whom were let into our Country by Sleepy Joe Biden and his wonderful “Border Czar,” Kamala (she never even went to the Border!), through their absolutely INSANE Open Border Policy,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Monday. He continued, “I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports, etc.”
Over the weekend, Trump announced that “ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job despite the fact that the Radical Left Democrats, who are only focused on protecting hard line criminals who have entered our Country illegally, are endangering the USA by holding back the money that was long ago agreed to with signed and sealed contracts, and all.” He added, “But watch, no matter how great a job ICE does, the Lunatics leading the incompetent Dems will be highly critical of their work. THEY WILL DO A FANTASTIC JOB. The great Tom Homan is in charge!!!”
The announcement that ICE agents would be used to backfill for TSA agents who have either called in sick or quit amid the Senate Democrats’ ongoing partial government shutdown prompted some Democrat lawmakers to claim that ICE’s presence was a danger to passengers. “We believe that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people, not brutalize or kill them,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-MD) said on Sunday.
Jeffries’s remarks were echoed by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter), “ICE agents at airports will only aggravate delays & lines—disrupting checks, interrogating travelers, dragging parents from children, detaining citizens, brutalizing families, shooting & even killing.”
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