Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Donald Trump’s Decision To Send ICE To Airports While TSA Workers Go Without Pay Due To Republican Obstruction

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the Senate floor on Donald Trump's absurd decision to send ICE to airports, rather than come to the table and end the DHS shutdown and ensure TSA workers are paid. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Senators continue negotiations to reach an agreement to fund TSA, fund the Coast Guard and FEMA and CISA, and fund other critical agencies while at the same time securing real reforms to rein in ICE. We had made some modest progress over the weekend, before Donald Trump threw a temper tantrum yesterday demanding that the SAVE Act be part of any deal to pay TSA workers. Attaching voter suppression to TSA paychecks was an outrageous demand from the start. Democrats knew it. Republicans knew it. And we wasted a day of negotiations because of Donald Trump's temper tantrum. A day may not seem a lot to the President, but that's another day of TSA workers needlessly waiting for checks, another day of travelers standing for hours at a time at security.

Fortunately, it seems like things are getting back on track this morning. Donald Trump-perhaps realizing that Democrats will block voter suppression in the Senate, his SAVE Act-seems to have gotten over his temper tantrum. We hope for a little while, with him you never know. Republicans can hopefully now come back to the table and get serious about reaching a solution to pay TSA workers ASAP. We await to hear from them on a written proposal that we will review. Because right now, the situation at our airports is untenable. TSA wait times in Houston reached six hours at one point over the weekend. And what does Donald Trump do? He sends ICE agents to the airports.

ICE agents don't know the first thing about airport security. They weren't trained to screen travelers. They don't know the layout and protocols of the airports they've been sent to. And it sounds like ICE agents aren't even really doing anything once they get to the airport, many of them. They're just being paid to stand around, posted by exits and baggage claims just people watching. What's the point? What's the point? As Americans are waiting hours in line at the airport, they are asking each other: why is Trump paying these ICE agents who seem to have little to do, instead of using those dollars to pay TSA agents so the lines can go more quickly?

Americans waiting on line are asking those questions. Just because something popped into Donald Trump's head-put ICE agents at the airports-and his administration just says, 'yes, sir,' even though they know it's a ridiculous idea, doesn't mean we should continue it. We should have the TSA paid. Of course, perhaps it may not be that security is Donald Trump's goal at all in sending ICE to airports. Listen to this: yesterday in a podcast, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon said Trump should use these agents as a "test run" to "really perfect ICE's involvement in the 2026 elections." Again, Bannon: "Trump should use these agents as a "test run," his words, to "really perfect ICE's involvement in the 2026 elections."

This is bone chilling. Steve Bannon is saying the quiet part out loud, calling ICE's deployment to airports a "test run" for the midterms. This is how authoritarians turn law enforcement into intimidation forces. This is why Democrats are so intent on reining ICE in. The disease of undermining elections is rampant in the right wing of the Republican party, and it seems they will use any means they can to achieve that goal. They know Donald Trump and Republicans are in trouble this November, and they will do whatever it takes, legal or not, to prevent a legitimate election. ICE needs to leave the airports now. Trump needs to pay TSA workers now, and push Republicans to reach a deal. No intimidation forces at our airports. No more chaos at checkpoints. Enough is enough.

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