Airport disruptions abound as senators chase deal to end Homeland
Security budget standoff
[March 25, 2026]
By LISA MASCARO and JOEY CAPPELLETTI
WASHINGTON (AP) — Travel disruptions deepened Tuesday as senators raced
to salvage a proposal to end the Homeland Security shutdown by funding
much of the department, including airport workers going without pay, but
excluding immigration 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 enforcement and mass deportation operations after
federal agents killed two citizens in Minneapolis.
“The time to end this is now,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune,
R-S.D.
But Democrats panned the offer as insufficient. And President Donald
Trump himself was noncommittal.
“I think any deal they make, I’m pretty much not happy with it,” Trump
said at an event at the White House swearing in his new Homeland
Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
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. In
Houston, passengers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport spent hours
Tuesday navigating meandering security lines that twisted and turned
across multiple floors.
Acting TSA administrator Ha McNeil said multiple airports are
experiencing greater than 40% call out rates, according to prepared
remarks she will give Wednesday to the House Committee on Homeland
Security.
She is also expected to tell lawmakers of the personal toll the shutdown
has had on TSA workers who “are running out of options to keep a roof
over their head and put food on the table.”
Hopes for a quick deal
The contours of the deal emerged once a group of Republican senators met
with Trump at the White House late Monday, after he upended talks and
deployed federal immigration officers at certain airport security
checkpoints — a move some lawmakers warned could lead to heightened
tensions.
The proposal 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 plan, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations would be funded
as well as Customs and Border Protection, and it would include funding
for officers to wear body cameras, but few other restraints.
The proposal was not substantially different from one the two sides had
already agreed on before the deaths sparked demands for more changes,
according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the details, which
have not been publicly released.
For example, there was no mandate that immigration officers wear
identification or other changes the White House had floated earlier in
talks, including a ban on immigration enforcement at schools, churches,
hospitals and other sensitive places, the person said.
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.
[to top of second column]
|
Travelers line up at a TSA checkpoint at George Bush
Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP
Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
“We need strong, strong reforms and we need to rein in ICE," said Senate
Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Since so much of ICE is already funded through Trump's big tax breaks
bill, immigration officers are still receiving paychecks despite the
shutdown.
Congress is controlled by the Republican president's party, and House
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his party members insist on
“bold” changes to 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.
Political standoff, long airport lines
Efforts to end the standoff stalled when Trump linked any deal 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. Some GOP senators have pitched him on
the idea of tackling it in another legislative package.
“It’s not a perfect deal but I think it works,” said Sen. Lindsey
Graham, R-S.C., who met with Trump and thinks the president is on board.
“If you’re waiting in line four hours in Atlanta, this madness needs to
come to an end."
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., 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 Mullin, one of their own,
as the president's handpicked replacement.
Mullin, a former Oklahoma senator aligned with Trump's agenda, provides
a potentially new face for the department. He told senators during his
confirmation hearing that he supported 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.
___
Associated Press writers Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Wyatte Grantham-Philips
in New York, Lekan Oyekanmi in Houston and Kevin Freking, Seung Min Kim
and Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
