WASHINGTON — Pressure is mounting on Congress to end the funding shutdown that's resulted in travel disruptions, missed paychecks and even warnings of airport closures, but lawmakers have yet to resolve the underlying issue of reining in President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement operations.
Senators are expected to vote Thursday on a Republican proposal that would fund the Transportation Security Administration and much of the Department of Homeland Security, except the enforcement and removal operations conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But it's expected to fail.
Democrats argue the GOP plan does not go far enough at putting guardrails on ICE, Customs and Border Protection and other federal officers who are engaged in the Trump administration's immigration sweeps, particularly after the deaths of two Americans protesting the actions in Minneapolis.
With Congress set to leave town by week's end for its own spring break recess, calls are intensifying for an end to the 41-day stalemate that's put the livelihoods of TSA officers at risk as they provide airport security without pay.
“This is a dire situation,” the acting TSA administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill testified at a House hearing Wednesday.
She described the multiple hardships facing unpaid TSA workers — piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned of potential airport closures if more employees refuse to come to work. Daily callout rates have increased to 11% nationwide.
“At this point, we have to look at all options on the table," she said. "And that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.”
Trump stays out of the fray
The Republican president has largely stayed out of the public debate over the path his party should take to end the standoff. Trump initially signed off on the plan the GOP senators brought to him late Monday, but on Tuesday he said he wouldn’t be happy with any deal.
Trump didn’t directly address the status of negotiations late Wednesday evening during an annual fundraising dinner for the House Republicans' campaign committee as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., works to keep majority control of the chamber in the November midterm elections.
But Trump criticized Democrats for refusing to settle their demands on immigration changes.
The GOP's big tax cuts bill that Trump signed into law last year funneled billions to the Department of Homeland Security, including $75 billion for ICE operations, ensuring the money is flowing for his immigration and deportation agenda even with the routine department funding shutdown. ICE and other immigration officers are still being paid.
The situation is partly of Trump's making, a strategy the president put in place last fall, when he cut a deal with Democrats to end a previous federal shutdown. At that time, Trump agreed to fund the federal government, except for Homeland Security, which was then put on temporary funding that has expired.
A stopgap measure
While the Republican offer added one new restraint on immigration officers, funding the use of body cameras that had previously been agreed to, it excluded other policies that Democrats have demanded — such as that federal agents wear identification, remove their face masks and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said they needed to see real changes. “We’ve been talking about ICE reforms from day one,” he said.
Democrats had been in several days of talks with the White House, including with border czar Tom Homan, that appeared to be making progress toward a deal. The White House presented its own offer with several items Democrats had been demanding, including officer IDs and training.
But those negotiations broke down over the weekend.
Republicans say Democrats are putting the country at risk. They say the Trump administration has already made strides to meet Democrats' demands and has shown a new approach to its immigration operations, swearing in Markwayne Mullin as the new Homeland Security secretary to replace Kristi Noem.
“They know this is crazy," Johnson said.
But conservative Republicans also panned the proposal, demanding full funding for immigration operations and skeptical of the promise from GOP leaders that they would address Trump's proof-of-citizenship voting bill in a subsequent legislative package.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Wednesday that if Democrats put a “more realistic offer on the table, we'll be back in business.”
Asked if Congress would consider a stopgap measure to temporarily fund the department, Thune said: “We'll see.”
Airport lines grow
as TSA workers endure hardships
McNeill, the acting TSA administrator, told lawmakers that multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates and more than 480 transportation security officers have now quit during the shutdown.
She cited the growing financial strain on the TSA workforce.
“Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public,” she said.
McNeil also said TSA officers working at the nation’s airports have experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the shutdown began.
“This is unacceptable, and it will not be tolerated,” McNeill said.
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Associated Press writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Russ Bynum in Houston and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.
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