Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Friday said the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers at U.S. airports has “enhanced” airport operations as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown causes massive problems at America’s airports.

Trump deployed ICE officers to over a dozen airports as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) shortages have contributed to security checkpoint closures, long lines and flight delays and cancellations.

“It seems that it has enhanced some kinds of performance across there, yeah,” Fetterman told independent journalist Nicholas Ballasy.

Most DHS employees have continued to work without pay as the shutdown drags on, as they are deemed essential. But an increasing number are calling out sick — though relief appears to be coming, as Trump has ordered TSA employees to be paid despite the funding standoff.

Fetterman said it has become “harder and harder to justify this shutdown,” emphasizing the amount of travel expected for the FIFA World Cup.

“And now we’re 77 days out and this is still shut down,” he said. “And you have millions of people from abroad coming and millions of Americans joining these too. And it’s like, if you’ve seen the kinds of chaos at airports, I can’t even imagine –– you have millions coming here for [the] World Cup and we are sitting on our hands.”

Fetterman added that he could “never justify this [shutdown] from the start.” The Pennsylvania Democrat was the only member of his party to back a bill last month to keep the whole department running.

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday that the ICE officers are “helping people with bags, even picking up and cleaning areas.”

“They are so proud to be there!” the president added. “The fact is, they shouldn’t have to do this, but they are rehabbing a fake image given to them by Radical Left Democrat politicians.”

Some ICE officers have also started checking travelers’ identification documents after receiving standard training, TSA Acting Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said on Wednesday.

Democratic lawmakers have called for major reforms with ICE in response to the agency’s aggressive and secretive tactics in carrying out Trump’s hardline deportation agenda. Calls for reform intensified after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by federal immigration officers in separate incidents in Minneapolis in January.

Fetterman has previously said he supports reforms for ICE, but he added that shutting down DHS would not reach that goal.

“As a committed Democrat, I want the same changes that every other Democrat wants to make on ICE,” he said in February, in a video shared to social media. “We want to find a way forward to produce those changes but shutting down the government is the wrong way.”

The Senate early Friday approved a measure by unanimous consent to fund all of the DHS with the exception of ICE and U.S. Border Patrol. House Republicans rejected the bill later early in the afternoon and held a late-night vote Friday night on a stopgap DHS funding bill that includes ICE, ensuring Democratic opposition.

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