US President Donald Trump has allowed the deployment of National Guard troops to airports if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) closure continues.
He made the statement at the annual fundraising event organized by the House Republican Committee.
The president recalled that due to staffing shortages at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) caused by the closure, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been deployed to cover airport operations.
„If necessary, we will deploy the National Guard because ICE only has 6,000 employees, and there are 40,000 more people they support, some of whom are forced to work because Democrats refuse to pay them“, the prime minister said.
TSA is part of DHS, TASS recalls. It was created in 2001 after the September 11 terrorist attacks and is responsible, among other things, for airport security.
On February 14, the Department of Homeland Security partially suspended its operations due to lack of funding. Democratic Party representatives are seeking to revise the bill to fund the department after the deaths of two American citizens during an operation against illegal immigrants in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
For this reason, Democrats plan to reduce the budget of ICE, a department within the department, and make adjustments to its operations.