Hakeem Jeffries Called ICE Agents at JFK Useless and One of Them Proved Him Wrong
Hakeem Jeffries told Congress that ICE agents at JFK were "sitting around, doing nothing."
He said it on the same day a one-year-old boy stopped breathing in a JFK security line.
What the ICE agent standing twenty feet away did next is something Jeffries hasn't addressed.
Democrats Predicted Death. ICE Delivered Life.
The boy's father panicked.
The child went limp in his arms.
The ICE agent heard the screaming and ran.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed what happened next in an official statement: "This heroic officer immediately sprang into action—rushing toward the cries, taking the child, and performing a Heimlich maneuver that restored the infant's breathing after nearly two minutes."
"This officer's extraordinary bravery embodies the selfless service of DHS law enforcement," DHS added.
Bill Melugin of Fox News captured the moment on video — the frantic father, the limp child, the agent moving before anyone else reacted.
Watch it and then explain to Hakeem Jeffries what "doing nothing" looks like.
Jeffries Wasn't Alone in the Fearmongering
Jeffries made his "doing nothing" remarks from the House floor the same day this rescue was confirmed.
He wasn't the only Democrat running the panic playbook.
Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut posted on X that ICE agents at airports would be "shooting and even killing" citizens.
Jeffries himself had warned on CNN's State of the Union the previous Sunday that deploying ICE would result in agents who would "brutalize or in some instances kill" American travelers.
These weren't predictions.
They were a strategy — weaponize fear about federal law enforcement to block Trump from solving a crisis Democrats built.
Here's how they built it.
Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security, holding the agency hostage over ICE enforcement.
That left roughly 61,000 TSA officers working without pay since February 14.
More than 480 quit outright.
Thousands more called out daily — absence rates hit 37 percent at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on some days — and travelers paid the price with four-hour security lines during spring break.
Democrats caused every minute of that wait.
Then they went on television and blamed Trump.
Trump Deployed ICE. A Baby Is Alive.
When lines hit three and four hours, President Trump moved.
He deployed ICE agents – already fully funded through his One Big Beautiful Bill Act – to 14 airports, putting border czar Tom Homan in charge.
The mission: crowd control, entrance and exit management, and getting ICE officers into support roles so TSA agents could stay on the screening lines where they were needed most.
Democrats called it a stunt.
Jeffries called it "ICE brutality."
Blumenthal called it a killing machine.
What it actually was: trained federal law enforcement officers present at the exact moment a family needed someone to act.
The ICE agent at JFK didn't consult a policy memo.
He heard the screaming and moved.
The left spent a week telling you these officers were the danger.
The danger was the chaos Democrats manufactured — and the ICE agent they mocked is the reason one family went home with their son instead of a funeral.
Share this story. Forward it to anyone still defending Hakeem Jeffries. The Democrats who predicted death owe that agent and that little boy an apology — and they can start by funding the TSA and ending the shutdown they engineered.
Sources:
- Dmitri Bolt, "ICE Agent Saves Choking 1-Year-Old at JFK as Democrats Fearmonger About ICE in Airports," Townhall, March 26, 2026.
- Department of Homeland Security (@DHSgov), official statement via X, March 26, 2026.
- Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_), Fox News report via X, March 26, 2026.
- "Leader Jeffries Floor Remarks Against Republican Bill Funding ICE Brutality," House Democratic Leader press release, March 26, 2026.
- "Top Democrats Claim ICE Agents at Airports Could Get Passengers Killed," Fox News, March 23, 2026.
- "Hakeem Jeffries: ICE Officers Assisting at Airports Is 'Last Thing' Americans Need," The Hill, March 22, 2026.
- "Trump Has Deployed ICE Agents to the Nation's Airports. What's Their Role?" NPR, March 26, 2026.
