Waiting on Washington

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next, speeding up long waits at airport security.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, ICE, took up positions beginning Monday at more than a dozen major airports across the country.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: President Trump ordered them there to assist TSA after Senate Democrats held together and blocked funding for the Department of Homeland Security, again. 

TSA and other Homeland Security employees have been working without pay since the department shut down well over a month ago. And as employees quit or call in sick, security lines have been growing.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports on what’s happening at the airport and on Capitol Hill.

MARY MUNCY: Patrice Clark left her house at 3:00 in the morning on Saturday so she could stand in line at TSA for four hours in Las Vegas.

CLARK: From now on, I would drive wherever I have to go until they get this figured out. It was horrible.

And it’s not just Vegas. The TSA line at JFK in New York stretched across the airport. In Atlanta on Monday, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport told travelers to arrive four hours before their flight.

Those long security lines prompted President Trump to deploy ICE. Border Czar Tom Homan:

HOMAN: So we're there to help TSA and plug the holes...

Homan says ICE agents are helping with things like door security to free up TSA agents to help people through the line.

HOMAN: But if they see criminal activity, they're federal law enforcement officers, they should take action.

Over 200,000 DHS employees are working without pay for the second time in six months. They’ll get back pay when DHS is funded, but when that will be is up in the air.

Since the shutdown started, more than 300 employees have quit, and twice as many TSA agents as normal are calling out sick.

But unlike TSA agents, ICE officers are getting paid.

President Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill last year secured funding for ICE. Now, he’s pushing Congress to end the shutdown.

The future of ICE and how it operates is at the heart of the legislative gridlock. Democrats say they won't agree to future funding of ICE or Customs and Border Protection until Republicans allow new rules on how immigration is enforced.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats are willing to fund the rest of DHS, like FEMA and the Coast Guard, and blames Republicans for the long airport lines.

SCHUMER: Every previous vote offered by the Republicans has tied TSA funding to also continue funding for ICE.

But GOP Senator John Kennedy argues ICE funding is essential for a functioning government. He says GOP senators are willing to talk about reforms, if DHS is funded.

KENNEDY: But they haven’t agreed, despite concessions on our side to open up ICE. And they’re not going to.

Congress is supposed to begin a two-week recess for Easter at the end of the week. They’re expected to continue meeting on the issue until then.

At the Atlanta airport, Otessa Lofton says the shutdown is frustrating, but right now, there’s nothing to do but show up early.

LOFTON: We're patient with the lines, and we know that the ones that are working are working as hard as they can.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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