The Latest: Almost 500 TSA officers have quit during the shutdown
Congress is under pressure to fund the Department of Homeland Security ahead of its upcoming spring recess, as the Transportation Security Administration may have to shut down operations at some airports if the budget impasse drags on.
The shutdown is taking a personal toll on TSA workers. Over 480 officers have quit altogether, according to DHS. At some of the busiest and most backed-up U.S. airports, ICE officers are patrolling security lines and checkpoints, ordered by President Donald Trump to assist a short-staffed TSA.
The vote to fund DHS remained at a standstill Thursday as senators negotiate behind closed doors and review the latest Republican offer to end the funding impasse with potential immigration enforcement changes. A core group of more than 10 Democrats and Republicans is trying to hammer out details as pressure mounts on Congress to reach a deal.
Here's the latest:
Voting has come to a standstill as senators retreat behind closed doors to review the latest Republican offer to end the funding impasse with potential immigration enforcement changes.
The vote to advance an earlier GOP proposal was failing, as the new approach takes shape.
“Still working on it,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., a chief GOP negotiator as she ducked into Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office.
A core group of more than 10 Democrats and Republicans are trying to hammer out details as pressure mounts on Congress to reach a deal.
It’s among a menu of options the White House is considering as Senate talks to end the budget stalemate came to a standstill and airport workers go unpaid.
One Republican, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, said he was told at lunch that the decision had already been made, but he spoke directly to the White House afterward and understood that was not the case.
“The president may well decide that, but I don’t know,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
Collins, who is the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee that handles money matters, said there are other options available – including funding elsewhere that can be legally used to pay TSA as well as the Coast Guard.
A group representing immigrant farmworkers in south Florida is telling undocumented people to avoid Southwest Florida International Airport after federal officers arrived to help with security this week.
“If you are undocumented, it is recommended to not go to the airport - inside or outside,” Unidos Immokalee told its followers on social media. Immokalee is home to many immigrants who work in the tomato fields and other farming operations in the area that’s known as one of Florida’s most important agricultural regions.
Victoria Moreland, a spokeswoman for the airport, said ICE agents were deployed this week to the airport, which serves Fort Myers and surrounding areas along Florida’s southwest coast. She said questions about their job responsibilities would need to be directed to the federal government.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t immediately respond to questions about ICE agents at the Florida airport, among the smallest U.S. airports hosting ICE agents.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune opened the chamber Thursday by saying that “Democrats need to get serious about funding the Department of Homeland Security.”
“The Dems are now in possession of what I think is our last and final, so let’s hope this gets it done,” Thune told reporters about where negotiations stood.
Thune would not comment on what was in the proposal, after each side and the White House have sought to find a deal before lawmakers are set to leave next week for recess.
“Enough is enough. Republicans have bent over backward to negotiate with Democrats,” said Thune.
Almost 500, according to the latest DHS count.
“This reckless shutdown has driven nearly 500 TSA officers to quit, while thousands more are forced to call out because they can’t afford gas, childcarechild carer rent,” DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said.
Nationwide on Wednesday, more than 11% of the TSA employees on the schedule missed work, according to DHS. That’s over 3,120 callouts.
The callout rate was three or four times higher at some airports, DHS said:
About 41% at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson
39% at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental
36% at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans
Nearly 32% at Houston’s secondary airport, William P. Hobby
Roughly 29% at both New York’s John F. Kennedy and Baltimore-Washington International Airport
Passengers waiting in Houston’s hours-long airport shourslongnes have plenty of time to vent their frustration with the political impasse that’s left TSA agents unpaid.
“You don’t experience this in a lot of other countries, and I just feel like it’s unacceptable,” said Eche Emole, trying to catch a flight Thursday to Cancun, Mexico, at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. “This should not be happening.”
Emole said he was still waiting to clear security after three hours in line.
James Person, flying to Knoxville, Tennessee, said the waiting crowds had been friendly. And he praised the airport staff, TSA agents and immigration officers brought in by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help bolster security.
“I’m just really upset with Congress for not doing their job to fund DHS so we can get rid of this mess,” Person said.
But without a deal between Democrats and Republicans, it’s unlikely that any legislation on the shutdown will advance. There have been multiple failed votes in the Senate in recent weeks.
Some travelers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston say they’re missing flights after spending hours in security lines.
Melissa Gates said she wouldn’t make her flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after waiting more than 2 and a half hours and still not reaching the security checkpoint.
She said no other flights were available until Friday, so she planned to spend the night at the airport.
“I should have just driven, right?” Gates said of her 260-mile (418-kilometer) trip to Baton Rouge. “Five hours would have been hilarious next to this.”
Jimmy Hidalgo had better luck. Still waiting to clear security after nearly three hours, he managed to bump his flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to a later departure.
“I changed it already for the next flight,” Hidalgo said, noting he didn’t have to pay extra. “But now I’ll have to sit in the middle seat.”
Trump opened the meeting by noting the presence of Markwayne Mullin, who was sworn in Tuesday as the Department of Homeland Security’s new secretary.
The president also noted that “we’re now on Day 41” of the shutdown of DHS, which has meant TSA agents at airports have been working without pay. That has led passengers to wait for hours to clear security before their flights.
“Congratulations,” Trump told Mullin. Everyone else laughed. Trump blamed the shutdown on Democrats, who have been pushing for procedural changes for immigration and customs operations. Negotiations continue to break the impasse.
Trump said “they need to end the shutdown immediately, or we’ll have to take some very drastic measures.” He already has sent some ICE officers to airports as backup for TSA.
Travelers arriving early Thursday to catch flights in Atlanta found long security lines extending outside the main terminal.
Photos and video posted to social media from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport showed lines winding through the baggage claim area, outside the doors and down the sidewalk outside.
The airport wasn’t reporting estimated wait times to clear security checks. But its website said travelers should allow themselves four hours to clear security amid the political impasse that’s left TSA agents without pay.
Passengers are facing more four-hour waits to clear security at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston following a brief respite.
The airport’s website said Thursday morning that travelers should expect to wait two hours, 30 minutes in the security line at one of its open terminals and four hours at the other.
That’s after waits dipped to two hours or less Wednesday, which airport officials attributed to fewer people flying midweek.
Lines and wait times are expected to grow Thursday and Friday because of “significantly higher passenger traffic,” according to an update on the airport’s website.
That’s in part because of some major events coming to Houston, including a large global energy conference and two of the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 games.
Passengers are facing more four-hour waits to clear security at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston following a brief respite.
The airport’s website said Thursday morning that travelers should expect to wait two hours, 30 minutes in the security line at one of its open terminals and four hours at the other.
That’s after waits dipped to two hours or less Wednesday, which airport officials attributed to fewer people flying midweek.
Lines and wait times are expected to grow Thursday and Friday because of “significantly higher passenger traffic,” according to an update on the airport’s website.
That’s in part because of some major events coming to Houston, including a large global energy conference and two of the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 games.
While long security lines have hobbled airports across the U.S., the problems at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston have been more pronounced.
Frustrated travelers at the city’s largest airport have confronted warnings of four-hour wait times to get through security.
Union and airport officials have offered a variety of reasons why Bush Intercontinental seems to be worse than other airports:
-It has one of the highest callout rates of TSA workers in the country
-It has higher passenger traffic, since the airport is a major hub for United Airlines
-It’s a busy tourism month for Houston
ICE officers who are helping TSA at airports that are struggling with long passenger lines are helping with things like crowd control and verifying passengers’ identities using TSA equipment, according to a DHS spokeswoman.
“After receiving standard TSA training curriculum, ICE officers are guarding entrances and exits, assisting with logistics, doing crowd control, and verifying identification using TSA equipment and standard operating procedures,” said Lauren Bis. “The more support we have available, the more efficiently TSA can focus on their highly specialized screening roles to efficiently get airport security lines moving faster.”
Bis said she could not give details on how many ICE officers had been deployed to assist TSA or which airports they were stationed at due to operational security concerns.
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.
President Donald Trump said on social media Wednesday that he may deploy the National Guard to help at airports plagued by long security lines.
Trump said, “I may call up the National Guard for more help” after already ordering federal immigration agents to assist with security at airports.
Joseph Nunn, a legal scholar focused on domestic military activities at the Brennan Center for Justice, said Trump could likely make it work by asking governors to send in state troops who haven’t been federalized. They could perform law enforcement duties such as running X-ray machines and checking identification.
“If a governor doesn’t do that, it will limit his options,” Nunn said.
Troops federalized by the president couldn’t perform duties similar to those of security screeners because of the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws, Nunn said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund is “rapidly depleting,” Victoria Barton, a FEMA external affairs official, told lawmakers.
FEMA is able to continue its disaster response and recovery work as long as that fund has money, and about 10,000 of its disaster workers continue being paid through it.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said that they needed to see real changes. “We’ve been talking about ICE reforms from day one,” he said.
Republican leaders said Democrats are putting the country at risk. “They know this is crazy,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
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.”
Democrats are insisting on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal officers during protests.
The latest GOP proposal would fund most of DHS except for the enforcement and removal operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that have been central to the debate. The plan would provide money for other aspects of ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection.
While the offer added some new restraints on immigration officers, including the use of body cameras, it excluded other policies that Democrats have demanded, such as requirements that federal agents wear identification and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places.
The Transportation Security Administration may have to shut down operations at some airports if the budget impasse drags on, the agency’s acting head said Wednesday, even as record wait time for travelers did little to end the standoff over the funding fight in Congress.
The TSA’s Ha Nguyen McNeill described the mounting hardships facing unpaid airport workers — piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned that lawmakers must ensure “this never happens again.”
“This is a dire situation,” she testified at a House hearing, warning of potential airport closures. “At this point, we have to look at all options on the table. 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.”
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