NEW YORK CITY — Immigration agents have begun arriving at airports across the country on Monday including some in New York City.
ICE officers were seen patrolling at John F. Kennedy International Airport just after 9 a.m., according to the New York Times.
Immigration agents showed up to Newark Airport around 6 a.m.
Trump also wrote that he told ICE to “get ready” on Monday in preparation of the new directive.
Due to the ongoing government shutdown, TSA officers have gone unpaid with a large amount of workers either calling out of work or quitting.
In New York City, around 17 percent of employees called at LaGuardia Airport on Saturday and nearly 33 percent did not show up for work at JFK Airport.
In an interview with CNN, Border Czar Tom Homan says ICE agents will provide extra security at airports and assist with airport security screenings.
“I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an x-ray machine because (they’re) not trained in that,” Homan told the outlet. “There are certain parts of security that TSA is doing, that we can move them off those jobs and put them in the specialized jobs, help move those lines.”
Senator Chuck Schumer criticized the move in a social media post.
“Untrained ICE agents lurking at our airports is asking for trouble. And it will make the chaos at our airports worse,” Schumer wrote on X.