Travelers stuck in a long line for security at LaGuardia Airport in Queens on March 22, 2026.
Kevin C. Downs for NY Post
They wanted ICE out. Now they’ll have to pass through ICE on the way out of town.
President Donald Trump is 100% right to use Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to supplement Transportation Security Administration agents at airports.
Trump announced the move after Democrats last week again refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security — and as TSA lines at major airports began snaking all the way into baggage claim and out the door.
California has avoided the worst of it, but that’s partly because SFO and LAX use private contractors.
The Democrats hope to use the suffering of American travelers to force Republicans to cave to their demands to kneecap ICE enforcement.
But the president played a . . . trump card.
One irony is that the shutdown doesn’t affect ICE; it’s funded through 2029, thanks to last year’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which passed on a simple majority through the reconciliation process.
So ICE officers are being paid, but not TSA agents.
A worse irony is that Dems’ posturing over ICE translates to the shocking dereliction of duty of refusing to fund DHS while the country’s at war, with constant terror threats and several actual recent attacks.
Get opinions and commentary from our columnists
Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!
Thanks for signing up!
Adding a layer of chutzpah, the Democrats claim it’s Trump who is being unreasonable by not bowing to their anti-ICE agenda.
ICE does necessary work: You can’t have real border enforcement if you give a pass to anyone who slips by Border Patrol — or who willingly submits to being detained, so they can receive a court summons and then disappear.
Not to mention the “migrants” who just stay illegally after their visas expire.
It’s also no accident that crime has plummeted around the nation over the past year, as ICE has been allowed to catch and deport thousands of foreign gangsters.
Together with the National Guard, this has made some of America’s most dangerous cities — like Washington, DC — much safer.
In yet another irony, left-wing activists have set up illegal “checkpoints” in various cities, checking drivers’ ID in the name of keeping ICE out.
In other words, they’ve decided interior border enforcement has a use after all!
Border czar Tom Homan says ICE agents won’t be involved in security screening or examining X-ray machines; they’ll take on other jobs to make up for TSA staff shortages, as hundreds of agents have quit since Democrats forced this (latest!) shutdown and countless more call in “sick.”
And therein lies another danger for Democrats: Travelers who encounter ICE agents at the airport might realize they’re not remotely the monsters painted in media propaganda.
They are fellow Americans — hard-working, courteous neighbors who devote their lives to the cause of public safety.
Of course, using ICE at airports is just a temporary measure; Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer should end this shutdown and pay the people who protect our nation’s airports.
How much more suffering will Democrats impose on the general public, merely so they can appease the most rabid radicals in their base?

2 hours ago
3
English (US)