Government shutdown hits airports — but not ICE

Chaos reigned at airports across the country last weekend, with thousands of travellers Waiting in security lines for long hours Thanks to staff shortages. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Coast Guard workers She turned to food banks for help after Weeks without pay. But amid a partial government shutdown aimed at curbing the Department of Homeland Security’s mass arrests and deportations, federal agents have continued their crackdown on immigrants relentlessly — and for now, there’s little anyone can do.

The Department of Homeland Security has been without funding for four weeks in a standoff over immigration enforcement. Democrats in Congress say this lapse will continue until the White House approves A Number of changes in ICE and CBP. But while large parts of DHS have been affected, ICE and ICE still have plenty of money at their disposal. Trump’s signing of the Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which narrowly passed last fall despite global Democratic opposition, gave the agencies a combined $170 billion to allocate to immigration enforcement through 2029. Much of that money went to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which received $45 billion to build new detention centers and $30 billion to hire and train staff. The appropriations currently being discussed would give ICE additional funding on top of $75 billion. This type of multi-year funding is unusual and insulates agencies from political pressures.

Relying on OBBBA funds, ICE continued to detain immigrants — including A Journalist based in Nashville Who repeatedly reports to the agency, who has a pending asylum application – and They are detained in substandard facilities. Despite the closure, Customs and Border Protection continued to explore additional locations for its “smart wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border, and briefly considered it. Building a barrier across Big Bend National Park In Texas. (The agency has since The plan was dropped(Most DHS employees, including TSA officers and Customs and Border Protection agents, are currently working without pay, although they You will receive late payment When funding resumes.

Democrats are demanding a series of concessions to restore DHS funding for this fiscal year. They called for “targeted enforcement” rather than roving patrols, an end to racial profiling, a “reasonable use of force policy,” and expanded officer training. Democratic lawmakers, who have compared plainclothes ICE officers to “paramilitary police,” want DHS to ban masks and standardize uniforms for agents in the field. They also required that officers wear body cameras, as well as ID cards displaying their agency, last name and unique officer number.

“These are common-sense reforms that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. he said at a news conference in January. So far, these requests have gone nowhere.

Democrats have had one notable victory in the battle: Trump DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was fired Last Thursday before the House of Representatives voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security. But most Democrats are unhappy with Noem’s ouster. “The problems in this agency go beyond any one person,” Schumer said He said in a press conference After last Thursday’s vote. “The corruption runs deep. The president must end the violence and rein in ICE.” the house Appropriations bill passed After her dismissal, but Senate Democrats did not budge.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) added: “It’s not as if Kristi Noem was involved in negotiating anything.” It has long been understood that Trump adviser Stephen Miller runs the show at DHS regardless of who the secretary is. “We were dealing with the White House before, and we will continue to deal with the White House at this point,” Jeffries said.

There is no good reason for the administration to give in to Democrats’ demands. The White House and Republicans in Congress blamed the shutdown on “radical left Democrats,” claiming that their refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security put Americans at risk. Although essential federal employees continue to work during the shutdown — in some cases without pay — Republicans I was warned The funding cut could prevent the Department of Homeland Security from responding to “threats against our homeland” in light of the Trump administration’s recent invasion of Iran. Even if individual officers have to remain unpaid, the unprecedented funding that ICE and CBP have received from OBBBA means that the agencies’ operations can continue.

Last year’s government shutdown provides insight into the operations of ICE and CBP. Ice An estimated 56,000 were deported people during a 43-day funding outage last fall, and detained nearly 65,000 people during the same time frame. But because its operations were funded by OBBBA, ICE appropriations He claimed in court filingsThe agency did not have to admit Democratic lawmakers who sought to monitor conditions in federal detention centers as part of their oversight duties.

The effects of the shutdown are not evenly distributed among the various agencies that make up DHS. Ironically, because Congress created the Department of Homeland Security in response to the September 11 plane attacks, the agency that has seen the most disruption by far is the Transportation Security Administration. Agents received nearly 30 percent of their salaries last week, but will not be paid again until DHS is funded, according to Bloomberg News. times. Ports of entry, including airports, remain mostly operational. Although the Department of Homeland Security initially claimed that TSA Precheck would be suspended amid the shutdown, the program is currently running at most airports. Global entry, which CBP is handling, has largely been suspended.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that handles naturalizations, green cards and other benefits applications, remains operational. Unlike other DHS agencies, USCIS is funded almost entirely by fees, meaning it is largely unaffected by the federal funding debate. Immigration courts also remain open, since the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the federal agency that oversees the immigration court system, falls under the Department of Justice.

However, some DHS employees are out of work amid the shutdown. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Sunday that Democrats want to fund most of the agencies that make up the Department of Homeland Security — including the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — separately.

Nearly 15% of FEMA workers are currently furloughed, while the remaining 85% are expected to work without pay. the New York Times Reports FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund is equipped to handle “current and anticipated” emergency response activities. Its response to a major disaster, Greg Phillips, associate director of the agency’s Office of Response and Recovery, said in federal testimony last week that its response to a major disaster “would be seriously strained.”

Nearly two-thirds of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s employees are being furloughed. Many of the 888 employees, whom the agency deemed “essential to protect life and property,” were forced to work without pay.

“Let’s pass these funding bills,” Keane said. Let’s limit the discussion of ICE reform to just these two agencies and fund the others. So far, Republicans have blocked those efforts.