Homan: ‘We’ll see’ if ICE leaves airports once TSA gets paid

[0:00] Joining us now to discuss White House borders are Tom Homan, who just visited the Houston [0:04] airport to monitor the very, very long security lines there. Mr. Homan has also been involved in [0:10] the talks on Capitol Hill to end the shutdown. Thanks for joining us, Mr. Homan. President [0:15] Trump now says that there is, in fact, a way to pay TSA workers, possibly as soon as tomorrow. [0:20] Can TSA agents expect a paycheck tomorrow? And when can Americans expect the long wait times [0:25] to die down? Well, as soon as Congress opens up the government and funds the Department of [0:33] Homeland Security, that's what needs to happen. But yeah, I talked to Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen [0:38] yesterday. There is a plan to get these TSA agents pay, hopefully by tomorrow, Tuesday. So yeah, [0:45] it's good news because these TSA officers are struggling. They can't feed their families or [0:49] pay the rent. Your heart goes out to them because they're sitting there right now working very hard [0:55] and not being paid by members of Congress. [0:57] On vacation, getting paid, it's ridiculous. I don't disagree. If the administration had the [1:03] power to move funds around to pay TSA agents this whole time, why did it take 41 days to do it? And [1:08] how long will this money last? Well, look, paying TSA agents doesn't pay the rest of the Department [1:15] of Homeland Security. You know, you got the Coast Guard, you got CISA, you got the Men and Women [1:19] Secret Service. You got a lot of people working for the Department of Homeland Security that [1:22] isn't getting paid. And even though, you know, and we got the mission support under TSA, I mean, [1:27] under ICE, right? ICE, [1:28] excuse me, they'll be getting paid. But how about the mission support people, the people that keep [1:33] the lights on and, you know, and do all the things that they have to do so ICE agents go out there and [1:39] do their job. So, you know, they just need to fund the Department of Homeland Security. After all, [1:43] we're talking about the Department of Homeland Security in a time we have a heightened threat, [1:48] you know, posture right now in this country because of what's going on in the world. [1:52] This should be the last thing they're fighting over funding for. [1:54] Right. But if President Trump had the power to pay TSA agents this whole time, [1:58] would he only start doing it now? [2:03] Look, I don't understand. Look, I'm a cop. I don't understand the whole, you know, appropriations [2:07] language, appropriations law. I just, you know, I'm just glad that President Trump is able to pay the [2:12] TSA agents. At least that's a start. But again, there's a lot more, many more, thousands of more, [2:17] tens of thousands of more DHS employees who are not being paid that need to be paid. [2:21] Once TSA agents start getting paid, will ICE agents leave the airports? [2:25] We'll see. You know, it depends how many TSA agents come back to work, how many TSA agents have [2:34] actually quit and have no plan coming back to work. I'm working very closely with the TSA [2:38] administrator and the ICE director to decide what airport needs what. But, you know, God bless the [2:43] men and women of ICE. They're doing a job. They're plugging those holes. They're keeping the security [2:48] airport at a high level, again, because the heightened threat, you know, that we're in right [2:52] now is, thank God, the TSA, I mean, the ICE agents are there, you know, protecting the exit lanes, [2:57] doing identification checks, plugging the security holes. We got to keep the airport safe. We got to [3:02] keep the American people, you know, going through the airport. [3:03] Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. [3:04] We got to keep those lines. So, and ICE is helping, you know, [3:06] shorten those lines and adding security to each and every airport around the country. [3:09] So, it's been a week since President Trump sent those ICE agents into airports to help [3:13] with security. The lines are still obviously bad. I'm not blaming them on ICE, but the lines are [3:17] still bad. The head of the union overseeing TSA, Everett Kelly, he told the New York Times, [3:22] quote, the administration sent ICE agents to airports as replacement workers. That's [3:26] like giving a person dying of pneumonia a teaspoon of cough syrup. It doesn't address [3:30] the problem and it's not going to work. But specifically, [3:34] you mentioned this just a second ago, but if you could go into more detail, [3:37] what have ICE agents at airports been doing? What have they actually accomplished? [3:41] Well, look, the wait lines have decreased. I was in Houston. Wait lines decreased in about [3:49] half. We got additional agents going to Baltimore yesterday to bring those lines down. And I can [3:56] understand the TSA union's position. You know, they want to be paid and they're frustrated. [4:01] But however, the facts are, every place we send ICE officers, the lines have [4:07] decreased and they need to decrease more. Look, they're checking identification before you go to [4:12] screen. We're not going to have an ICE officer looking at X-ray, you know, images deciding what [4:16] bags need to be secondary. That's a high level of training. But we can check IDs before they get to [4:21] that machine. We can cover exits to make sure that people don't enter through the exits. That takes [4:25] that TSA agent off that security line and put him on the X-ray machine. We're plugging other security [4:31] holes. We want to keep the airport safe. So we're doing the job TSA is asking us to do. [4:37] So their officers can get back to main screening. For the first time since the shutdown began, [4:41] just a few days ago, Democrats and Republicans came together. They passed this compromise bill [4:46] in the Senate. Republican leader John Thune said it was a good bill because ICE and CBP are already [4:52] funded because of the one big beautiful bill passed last year. He said the Democrats got [4:57] zero restrictions that would prevent ICE and CBP agents from doing their job safely. And Thune also [5:01] said ICE and CBP are going to end up getting even more funding through budget reconciliation. So why [5:07] would President Trump oppose this deal that John Thune, the Senate majority leader, says is a good [5:12] deal? President Trump wants the entire Department of Homeland Security funded. He wants the government [5:20] open and funded. And look, I've been on Capitol Hill talking to both sides and bottom lines. They [5:26] want changes in ICE tactics. They want changes in policies. Look, the same laws that ICE follows [5:33] today, the same laws about immigration enforcement, have been in place during a Clinton-Obama and now. [5:40] And the things we're talking about, they want to prevent ICE from doing their job. They can say [5:47] they don't want to abolish ICE. I'm in the room. They want to change operations so we arrest less [5:53] people. And look, the conversation's going good. We talk about body cameras. Well, pass the budget [5:58] and there's $120 million to buy body cameras. They want to talk about sensitive location and [6:04] enforcement sensitive locations. But they can't point to one instance, not one, where we've [6:09] arrested anybody in the country. And they can't point to one instance where we've arrested anybody [6:10] in a church or anybody inside of a hospital. There has been no issues like that. We don't have [6:15] a sensitive location policies, but we're already practicing sensitive location, that we don't do [6:20] the operations there unless there's significant national security threat or significant national [6:25] security threat. They have no sanctuary, but they can't point to a single instance we've [6:31] arrested an alien inside of a church or hospital. So these discussions can continue. But why can't [6:36] they continue these discussions and open the Department of Homeland Security while [6:40] they do that? They're holding the department hostage because they don't like what ICE is doing. [6:45] And ICE is enforcing laws they enacted. If they don't like what ICE is doing, [6:49] then change the law. That's your job. Well, I think some of the issues that [6:53] they've raised have to do with ways that ICE is doing its job differently now than they were [6:58] doing it even in the first Trump administration, having to do with a different kind of warrant, [7:02] having to do with ICE agents wearing masks. And obviously, this all comes in the wake of ICE [7:10] arresting American citizens mistakenly. And obviously, Rene Goode and Mr. Preti, Alex Preti, [7:18] being killed on the streets of Minneapolis. It's not exactly the same as how things have always [7:24] been done. The laws are exactly the same. Let's talk about the masks. You don't see ICE wearing [7:30] masks inside the airports because you're not on the street arresting criminals. You've got the [7:35] agitators who cross the line and threaten ICE agents. The same people in the Democratic Congress [7:40] that want ICE to take off. [7:41] The masks are the same people who say ICE is going to shoot people inside airports. I mean, [7:46] they can't have it both ways. So if you want ICE to take the mask off, the threat level has to [7:51] decrease. It's up 8000 percent increase in threats against ICE officers. And that's because a lot of [7:58] the rhetoric coming from the Hill. Stop calling ICE Nazis and racist. Stop saying they're going [8:03] to shoot people inside airports. That's going to drive the threat level down and we can talk [8:07] about masks. So, you know, we've got to work together at this. But the ICE, [8:11] ICE is doing the same thing they've done during 40 years. I've been doing it again. They're [8:17] enforcing laws that they enacted. They don't like it. Changed the law. The law hasn't changed. The [8:22] difference is under the last four years of Joe Biden, they weren't enforcing the law. Now. Now [8:27] ICE is actually enforcing law, doing their job, and they don't like it. If they don't like what [8:31] ICE is doing, change the law. Let me ask you about a separate topic. [8:34] Several administration officials have discussed and have not ruled out the idea of sending ICE [8:42] to all locations during the midterm elections this November. Has President Trump asked ICE to [8:47] start making any sort of plans to go to polling sites during the midterms? [8:50] I've had no discussions about that with President Trump or Secretary Mark Wayne [8:56] Mullen has not came up in any conversation. Tom Homan, we always appreciate your coming [9:00] by. Thank you so much, sir. I hope you have a nice rest of your weekend.