Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert was instantly fact-checked after she credited President Donald Trump's deployment of ICE to several U.S. airports as the reason why wait times in Minneapolis were down to under five minutes—completely overlooking the fact that ICE hasn't been deployed to that airport.
This week, Trump announced that he would deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports amid a partial government shutdown that has caused exceptionally long delays at TSA lines nationwide.
ICE agents are still getting paid during the shutdown, unlike TSA agents, who are currently working unpaid and struggling amid the affordability crisis. News outlets have confirmed ICE agents have been deployed in airports that serve Democratic strongholds, particularly John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports (New York), O'Hare International Airport (Chicago), and others.
Delays around the country have continued soaring and wait times are expected to spike as more TSA employees call out; more than 400 TSA agents have left their positions since DHS funding lapsed and their payments were paused.
In a video posted via her official X account, a grinning Boebert said:
“So President Trump sends ICE agents to the airports across the country and while the rest of our country has 3-plus hour waits―thanks, Democrats―Minneapolis airport TSA wait time right now is less than 5 minutes. Called it!”
She captioned her post "You can't make this stuff up!!"
Except she totally did make that up because ICE agents had not appeared at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) checkpoints.
Local news reports said ICE had not yet been deployed at MSP, despite the broader federal effort to send ICE personnel to some airports. An airport spokesperson told The Daily Beast the airport is “not aware of any planned changes for security checkpoint staffing at MSP at this time,” and attributed relatively short wait times to “the commitment of the local TSA team.”
Boebert was quickly called out.
Considering how critical Boebert has been of the Trump administration over the Epstein files scandal, this just seems like a not very well thought out attempt to get back into Trump's good graces.
