Trump has one playbook 'Send ICE', Gavin Newsom tears into President for chaos at airports

President Donald Trump's move to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to some U.S. airports was met with sharp criticism, with leaders slamming it as an inappropriate measure. Amid the absence of unpaid TSA workers and hours-long security wait times at airports, the president ordered his border czar, Tom Homan, to deploy ICE agents to help with crowd management and security. While their roles weren't made clear, the move has done little to help the issue, and leaders, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, tore into President Trump, accusing him of going by his "one playbook," which is "send ICE" for every issue or problem. 

On Sunday, President Trump announced that ICE agents will be deployed to U.S. airports to help TSA agents and alleviate crowd congestion. "On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents," he wrote on Truth Social. The move came after Congress failed to reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), resulting in a partial government shutdown and thousands of security staff being without pay. TSA employees called out en masse due to financial constraints, and their absence created huge queues and hours-long wait times at airport security checkpoints. On Monday, Homan announced that hundreds of ICE agents had been deployed to 14 airports, but the move was met with criticism from Democrats. 

"Donald Trump has one playbook, no matter the issue or problem: SEND IN ICE! Trump owns the government shutdown. He's incompetent — pathetic," Newsom wrote on X, slamming the President. The criticism comes after several reports indicate that ICE agents have done little to help with air travel disruption. 9News reported that passengers at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport are told to expect waits of more than four hours, despite ICE officers patrolling the queues and security stations.

Over on his press account, Newsom made another argument that Trump has made ICE his personal police force, and it is not competent enough to help. "By sending ICE into airports, Trump is proving the problem in real time: ICE has become the President’s lawless, under-trained, personal police force, deployed to serve his agenda — not the law,' he posted on X. The head of the TSA's union, Everett Kelley, also made similar comments, claiming ICE agents can't do the job of security personnel. "TSA officers spend months learning to detect explosives, weapons, and threats specifically designed to evade detection at checkpoints," Kelley said in a statement. "You cannot improvise that. Putting untrained personnel at security checkpoints does not fill a gap. It creates one," he added. 

Furthermore, speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said ICE officers were deployed "to help," but airports remained a "fertile territory" for detaining illegal immigrants; thus, he didn't rule out the possibility of agents making arrests.  Derrick Johnson, the head of the civil rights organisation NAACP, called out the move on this front, claiming "They (ICE officers) are inadequately trained, armed, and instructed to profile people based on race and accent," in a statement to the BBC. "What could possibly go wrong? We've seen this movie before," he added.