"creating panic among many - particularly Indian passengers - who even chose to leave the aircraft"
Are they are getting off the aircraft because they believe the "fee" will be required of their employment imminently, and that their employer will not pay it, and this will lead to their visa getting cancelled before they could return to the United States?
IMHO, it seems like there's a good chance of confusion and delay when reentering the US in the middle of this kind of change. It would be better to avoid that, if possible. And in the case that your visa does get canceled, it would be easier to fight that from in the US, and if necessary, to wind down your US household from inside the US as well. Everything gets a lot harder if you have to do it from outside the country.
It doesn’t seem very unclear - the president made up a policy it isn’t possible to comply with, since there is no way to actually pay the massive bribe, in addition to probably being illegal, but nonetheless CBP may start refusing entry to people in hours.
Like many cleptocrats, DJT seems to think that money received by the federal government is somehow his. However I don't think bribe is the appropriate term, it's more of a shakedown.
To the state coffers where it is money laundered to friends of the political class via favored private enterprises that win contracts for things like building border walls, keeping databases on US citizens, or running detention facilities.
Are they are getting off the aircraft because they believe the "fee" will be required of their employment imminently, and that their employer will not pay it, and this will lead to their visa getting cancelled before they could return to the United States?