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Amid the ongoing partial U.S. government shutdown, social media is dominated by images of airports in chaos. Security lines are stretching into airport parking garages. Wait times are hours long. More and more travelers are outright missing their flights due to the delays.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
On paper, the solution is clear: restore funding to the TSA to get agents paid again and back into airports. But President Donald Trump had a different idea that\u2019s gone into effect as of Monday: send ICE agents into airports instead.<\/p>\n
The partial shutdown began when the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s funding lapsed on February 14, with Democrats refusing to fund the department without reform to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE, in the wake of the fatal shootings by ICE agents of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. With both ICE and the TSA falling under the DHS, funding for the latter was halted, causing a shortage of TSA workers and inciting the major delays now impacting travelers nationwide.<\/p>\n
Democrats have since advanced several motions to fund the TSA without letting ICE go unreformed, but Republicans have blocked them every time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n