No, ICE is not at Long Beach Airport

Federal immigration agents have been deployed to airports across the country, sparking concern by many across the country, including here in Long Beach. But airport officials said no agents are expected.

“Long Beach Airport has not received any notification that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be conducting operations at the airport,” airport spokesperson Lindsey Phillips told the Watchdog Monday.

While agents are not at Long Beach, they could be at travelers’ final destination. Here is a list of airports where agents have been or will be sent, according to CNN:

• Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
• Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE)
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
• Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport (HOU)
• John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
• New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA)
• Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)
• Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico (SJU)
• Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
• Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)
• Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
• Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)
• Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW)

Being a smaller boutique airport, Long Beach does not rely on large numbers of TSA agents and has largely been unaffected by the partial government shutdown that began over a month ago as Democrats and Republicans spar over Department of Homeland Security funding in Congress.

At major airports across the country, more than 400 TSA agents have quit since the shutdown began, according to reports from NBC News. The result has been hours-long lines that sometimes stretch out of the buildings and into parking areas.

“At this time, the Airport continues to operate smoothly,” Phillips said, “with no disruptions to flights or passenger services.”

While many agents have been seen standing around, seemingly not doing much in the way of assisting TSA, there already has been at least one report of agents making an arrest. Video that has gone viral on social media shows agents aggressively detaining a woman in front of her teen daughter at San Francisco International Airport.

DHS claims the woman has final deportation orders and that the incident is not related to Trump's deployment of agents to U.S. airports.

Democrats in Congress are refusing to fund ICE until common-sense changes are made to how they operate, including requiring judicial warrants to enter private property (as required by the constitution), banning agents from wearing masks, requiring agents to wear IC and body-worn cameras, prohibiting arrests at hospitals, schools, daycares and courts, among other things.

Democrats have presented numerous bills to fund all of DHS, including TSA, but excluding ICE. Republicans have unanimously voted against those pieces of legislation.

But over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. presented a similar bipartisan plan to Trump, which would fund all of DHS except for ICE, NBC reports. Thune said ICE, which is currently funded under last year’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” would be funded separately by Republicans in a reconciliation bill that wouldn’t require Democrat support later this year.

In a Truth Social rant Sunday, Trump said he is fully against making a deal with Democrats until they vote to pass the SAVE America Act, a voter suppression bill that Republicans inexplicably want to include anti-trans language unrelated to voting.

“I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,’” Trump wrote. “It is far more important than anything else we are doing in the Senate, and that includes giving these same terrible people, the Dems (who are to blame for this mess!), a Five Billion Dollar cut in ICE funding, a deal which, even when disguised as something else, is unacceptable to me and the American people - UNLESS it includes their approval of Voter I.D., (with picture!), Citizenship to Vote, No Mail-In Voting (with exceptions), All Paper Ballots, No Men In Women’s Sports, and No Transgender MUTILIZATION of our precious children.”

No children receive gender-affirming surgeries, according to researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. For teens ages 15 to 17, the rate of undergoing gender-affirming surgery was 2.1 per 100,000 and the majority of those procedures were chest surgeries. Cisgender boys, however, accounted for 97% of chest surgeries among minors.