By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Air travelers are experiencing the highest wait times ever under the Transportation Security Administration, the agency’s acting head told Congress on Wednesday, as the latest offer to end a funding impasse and put restraints on President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda met fierce resistance.
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 said.
Yet on the 40th day of the standoff involving the Department of Homeland Security, there was no easy way out in sight. Neither Republican senators, who made the latest offer, nor Democrats, who are demanding more changes in immigration enforcement, appeared closer to a compromise.
Trump, who initially appeared to have given his nod to the deal, has declined to lend it his full support or put his political weight behind making sure it is approved.
Top officials at agencies under the DHS umbrella spoke at a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee about the potential risks of security lapses unless the partial government shutdown comes to an end.
A deal teeters on collapse
DHS has gone without routine funding since mid-February. Democrats are insisting on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after the killings of two citizens in Minneapolis by federal officers during protests.
The latest proposal would fund most of DHS except for the enforcement and removal operations of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement that have been central to the debate. The plan would cover 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.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said they needed to see real changes. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York pressed for “bold” changes at ICE.
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.
Airport lines grow as TSA workers endure hardships
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.
The top executive over Houston’s airport said security lines that have travelers waiting four hours or more could get longer if the political impasse was not soon settled.
Lines that twist and turn across multiple floors at George Bush Intercontinental Airport have been the result of TSA only being able to staff one-third to one-half the usual number of checkpoint lines, said Jim Szczesniak, aviation director for Houston’s airport system.
Trump’s decision to send ICE agents to the airports risks inflaming the situation, lawmakers have said. Video footage of federal officers detaining a crying woman at San Francisco International Airport drew outrage Monday from local officials, although it was unrelated to Trump’s order to deploy immigration officers.
FEMA also at risk
FEMA’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.
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Associated Press writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Russ Bynum in Houston and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.