Acting Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan sputtered and talked in circles this morning during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked by host Dana Bash about Donald Trump’s plan to station ICE agents at the nation’s airports to fill in for TSA agents who the administration is not paying due to a funding standoff with Congress.
“Are ICE agents even remotely trained to handle security at airports?” Bash inquired.
“Ice agents receive high-level training,” Homan replied. “And, you know, ICE agents are assigned at many airports across the country already. They do a lot of investigation, criminal investigation on smuggling reports. But, you know, there’s, I mean, there’s a lot TSA agents covering exits, you know, people that enter through the exits. You know, certainly a highly trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit that makes people don’t go through those exits entering the airport, through the exits. That stuff like that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to, to reduce those lines.”
“I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an x-ray machine because they’re not trained in that,” he added.
“So hopefully we’ll have all those answers here by this afternoon, but we’re working on it. And when we deploy tomorrow, we’ll have a well-thought-out plan to execute.”
Bash: “With respect, if you’re doing this in 24 hours, how well thought out could it possibly be?”
“Again, ICE has been at airports across the country for a long time. It’s just expanding those things,” Homan insisted. “Look, it does it –– how much of a plan does it mean to guard an exit, to make sure no one comes through that exit? And we’re talking about security options. And these officers are well-trained in security and they’re well-trained in identification. And we’re going to do what we can to help TSA move those people through the line.”
Here’s the question both Homan and Trump need to be asked: If a person refuses to do as an ICE agent instructs at an airport, will the agent pull out his gun and shoot the person in the head the same way they did when Renee Good and Alex Pretti were executed in Minneapolis?
