While Democrats screeched that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at airports were just “sitting around doing nothing” and that they might “brutalize or kill” travelers, one of those same “untrained” officers just saved a one-year-old boy’s life. And it’s the second time in recent weeks an ICE agent has saved a child.
On March 25, a toddler stopped breathing in the TSA PreCheck line at JFK airport. For nearly two minutes the family panicked as the child turned blue and went limp. An ICE agent assisting TSA operations heard the father’s cries for help, rushed over, took the boy, and performed the Heimlich maneuver until breathing resumed:
At JFK Airport, as travelers waited in hours-long lines, an infant became unresponsive and stopped breathing. The panic of the child’s family and nearby passengers were heard by an ICE agent stationed at a checkpoint.
This heroic officer immediately sprang into action—rushing… pic.twitter.com/JOJaFSEIZK
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) March 26, 2026
Thanks to the ICE agent’s quick and heroic actions, the child recovered fully. “If our agent had not been there and stepped up, this would have been a tragic outcome,” said Secretary Markwayne Mullin in a press release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “Despite the endless smears and lies told about them by sanctuary politicians and the media, our ICE officers show up every day to protect the Homeland and their fellow Americans.”
This is the second child ICE officers have saved in recent weeks as off-duty ICE agents in Plymouth, Minnesota rescued a 4-year-old boy who was found unresponsive in a hotel pool.
If liberal politicians had their way, that child at JFK might not be with us today as ICE never would have been allowed in any airport in the first place. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pushed back against Trump’s plans to send ICE agents to assist at overcrowded airports during the current, ongoing Democrat shutdown stating, “The last thing the American people need is for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports across the country, potentially to brutalize or to kill them.”
Overreact much? He also claimed Trump is paying ICE to “stand around and do nothing.” He wasn’t the only liberal complaining:
-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted Trump’s decision to deploy ICE agents to airports would “backfire” and lead to “trouble,” and claimed agents are being paid to, “just stand around.”
-Rep. Dan Goldman, D-NY, tried to assert agents were being sent to “terrorize our airports.”
-Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-CT, ranted during a House hearing that ICE should, “get the hell out of the airports,” and said they’re, “doing nothing and getting paid.”
They should all be required to repeat those remarks to the parents of the child who was saved at JFK. None of these rantings have aged well considering that, in addition to that child being alive and well today, things have gone much more smoothly at airports nationwide. DHS shared a video on X showing ICE agents smiling, waving, directing passengers, and moving lines faster:
This is the side of @ICEgov that the media won’t show you. pic.twitter.com/OrlHMoJ2nx
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) March 27, 2026
Travelers are thrilled. No chaos. No “brutality.” Just competence and gratitude. The exact opposite of the panic the left predicted. This is what happens when conservatives put good people in charge. Problems get solved and lives are saved, yet the ICE agents doing the hard work get demonized by the left anyway.
The next time a Democrat calls ICE “untrained thugs,” remember the toddler at JFK who almost paid the price for that lie.
