WASHINGTON — Travel disruptions deepened Tuesday as senators raced to clinch an emerging proposal to end the Homeland Security shutdown by funding much of the department, including airport workers going without pay, but excluding immigration enforcement and deportation operations that have been core to the dispute.
The sudden sense of urgency comes as U.S. airports are snarled by long security lines, with travelers being told to arrive hours before their flights in Houston, Atlanta and Baltimore/Washington International. Routine Department of Homeland Security funding was halted in mid-February ahead of the busy spring travel season. Nearly 11% of Transportation Security Administration workers who were scheduled to report for duty Monday — more than 3,200 — missed work, and at least 458 have have quit altogether since the shutdown began, according to DHS.
Democrats are refusing to fund the department without restraints on Trump's immigration and deportation agenda after agents killed two citizens in Minneapolis.
A potential breakthrough came after a group of Republican senators met at the White House with President Donald Trump late Monday, after he upended talks and deployed federal immigration officers at some airport security checkpoints — a move some lawmakers warned could lead to heightened tensions.
"The time to end this is now," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., signaling voting ahead.
Democrats were taking a more cautionary approach as they scrutinized the deal, but Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that after Trump's “temper tantrum” eased, it appears “things are getting back on track.”
But Trump himself was noncommittal: “I think any deal they make, I’m pretty much not happy with it.”
Airport conditions have become increasingly unpredictable with swelling crowds seen in major hubs. Travelers headed to LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports in New York — as well as Newark Liberty International in neighboring New Jersey — still couldn’t check online TSA wait times Tuesday morning.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were spotted in terminals, including at Philadelphia International Airport, where a protester was seen at one of the checkpoints holding a sign criticizing ICE.
Airport wait times listed in the MyTSA mobile app and other public sources may be outdated because the agency isn’t actively updating its websites during the shutdown. Atlanta’s airport, one of the world’s busiest, removed estimated wait times from its website.
Hopes high for a quick deal
Next steps in Congress could happen quickly if lawmakers can reach agreement, or sputter out just as fast.
The contours of the deal under consideration would fund most of Homeland Security, but not one main part of ICE — the enforcement and removal operations that are core to Trump's deportation agenda.
Under the proposal being floated, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations would be funded as well as Customs and Border Protection. But that would come with guardrails — keeping officers from those divisions in their traditional roles, rather than deploying them in urban immigration roundups.
The plan would also include a number of changes in immigration operations that Democrats have demanded, including mandating that officers wear body cameras and identification. While the ICE officers manning airports are going without face-covering masks, the Democratic demand that they go unmasked during immigration operations does not appear to be part of the deal.
Since so much of ICE is already funded through Trump's big tax breaks bill, and immigration officers are still receiving paychecks despite the shutdown, both sides are claiming political wins. Democrats are able to say they stopped the flow of additional ICE funds while achieving already agreed upon changes, while Republicans can claim they prevented more significant restraints on immigration operations.
Both chambers of Congress are controlled by the Republican president's party, and any deal reached in the Senate would also have to be approved by the House. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his party members would review the proposal and insist on “bold” changes to rein in ICE.
On Tuesday, Delta Air Lines confirmed it was suspending its specialty services for members of Congress amid the shutdown, meaning those who fly with the carrier will be treated like other passengers based on their SkyMiles status. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported the suspension. Delta's Capital Desk reservations line still remains open.
Political standoff, long airport lines
Key to ending the standoff appears to have been the senators' ability to shift the president's attention off his plan to link any department funding to his push to pass the so-called SAVE America Act, a strict proof-of-citizenship and voter ID bill that has stalled in the Senate ahead of the midterm elections.
Over the weekend Trump injected his demand for the voting bill as a condition for ending the funding standoff. Some GOP senators have pitched the idea of tackling it in the months ahead as part of a broader legislative package the party could pass on its own, similar to last year's big tax cuts bill.
The White House on Tuesday stressed that conversations were ongoing. But it also said an agreement to split off immigration enforcement funding, while addressing Trump’s elections bill separately, “seems to be acceptable.”
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who was not part of the group Monday at the White House, said his understanding was that there was a “sense of urgency” coming from the talks as the airport disruptions worsen.
Changes at Homeland Security
The deal could provide a political exit from the standoff over the embattled Department of Homeland Security, which was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but has come to symbolize Trump’s aggressive mass deportation agenda, with its goal of removing 1 million immigrants this year.
Under mounting political pressure, Trump ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid the public outcry over the immigration operations, and senators late Monday confirmed one of their own, Markwayne Mullin, as the president's handpicked replacement.
Mullin, an Oklahoma senator who aligns with Trump's agenda, was sworn into office Tuesday, providing a potentially new face for the department. During his confirmation hearing, Mullin touched on another key demand of Democrats — ensuring a judge has signed off on warrants that immigration officers use to search people's homes, rather than simply relying on administrative warrants issued by the department.
“This is significant,” Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said about the progress toward changes. "Noem is gone. That’s a big deal.”
ICE’s budget grew under last year’s bill by $75 billion, which has been untouched by the shutdown. Rather, its routine annual funding, some $10 billion, would be cut almost in half under the proposal.
After weeks of missed paychecks, many TSA agents have called in sick or even quit their jobs as financial strains pile up. Union leaders representing the workers have pushed Congress to reach a deal.
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Associated Press writers Rio Yamat, Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Kevin Freking and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
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