The latest: Pressure to fund DHS mounts in Congress ahead of spring recess
Mar 26, 2026, 9:10 AM | Updated: 10:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest proposal, made by Republican senators, would fund most of DHS but not the immigration enforcement and removal operations. The offer added some new restraints on immigration officers, including the use of body cameras, but excluded Democrat demands such as requirements that federal agents wear identification and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places.
Here’s the latest:
But without a deal between Democrats and Republicans, it’s unlikely that any legislation on the shutdown will advance. There have been multiple failed votes in the Senate in recent weeks.
Some travelers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston say they’re missing flights after spending hours in security lines.
Melissa Gates said she wouldn’t make her flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after waiting more than 2 and a half hours and still not reaching the security checkpoint.
She said no other flights were available until Friday, so she planned to spend the night at the airport.
“I should have just driven, right?” Gates said of her 260-mile (418-kilometer) trip to Baton Rouge. “Five hours would have been hilarious next to this.”
Jimmy Hidalgo had better luck. Still waiting to clear security after nearly three hours, he managed to bump his flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to a later departure.
“I changed it already for the next flight,” Hidalgo said, noting he didn’t have to pay extra. “But now I’ll have to sit in the middle seat.”
Trump opened the meeting by noting the presence of Markwayne Mullin, who was sworn in Tuesday as the Department of Homeland Security’s new secretary.
The president also noted that “we’re now on Day 41” of the shutdown of DHS, which has meant TSA agents at airports have been working without pay. That has led passengers to wait for hours to clear security before their flights.
“Congratulations,” Trump told Mullin. Everyone else laughed. Trump blamed the shutdown on Democrats, who have been pushing for procedural changes for immigration and customs operations. Negotiations continue to break the impasse.
Trump said “they need to end the shutdown immediately, or we’ll have to take some very drastic measures.” He already has sent some ICE officers to airports as backup for TSA.
Travelers arriving early Thursday to catch flights in Atlanta found long security lines extending outside the main terminal.
Photos and video posted to social media from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport showed lines winding through the baggage claim area, outside the doors and down the sidewalk outside.
The airport wasn’t reporting estimated wait times to clear security checks. But its website said travelers should allow themselves four hours to clear security amid the political impasse that’s left TSA agents without pay.
Passengers are facing more four-hour waits to clear security at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston following a brief respite.
The airport’s website said Thursday morning that travelers should expect to wait two hours, 30 minutes in the security line at one of its open terminals and four hours at the other.
That’s after waits dipped to two hours or less Wednesday, which airport officials attributed to fewer people flying midweek.
Lines and wait times are expected to grow Thursday and Friday because of “significantly higher passenger traffic,” according to an update on the airport’s website.
That’s in part because of some major events coming to Houston, including a large global energy conference and two of the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 games.
Passengers are facing more four-hour waits to clear security at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston following a brief respite.
The airport’s website said Thursday morning that travelers should expect to wait two hours, 30 minutes in the security line at one of its open terminals and four hours at the other.
That’s after waits dipped to two hours or less Wednesday, which airport officials attributed to fewer people flying midweek.
Lines and wait times are expected to grow Thursday and Friday because of “significantly higher passenger traffic,” according to an update on the airport’s website.
That’s in part because of some major events coming to Houston, including a large global energy conference and two of the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 games.
While long security lines have hobbled airports across the U.S., the problems at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston have been more pronounced.
Frustrated travelers at the city’s largest airport have confronted warnings of four-hour wait times to get through security.
Union and airport officials have offered a variety of reasons why Bush Intercontinental seems to be worse than other airports:
-It has one of the highest callout rates of TSA workers in the country
-It has higher passenger traffic, since the airport is a major hub for United Airlines
-It’s a busy tourism month for Houston
ICE officers who are helping TSA at airports that are struggling with long passenger lines are helping with things like crowd control and verifying passengers’ identities using TSA equipment, according to a DHS spokeswoman.
“After receiving standard TSA training curriculum, ICE officers are guarding entrances and exits, assisting with logistics, doing crowd control, and verifying identification using TSA equipment and standard operating procedures,” said Lauren Bis. “The more support we have available, the more efficiently TSA can focus on their highly specialized screening roles to efficiently get airport security lines moving faster.”
Bis said she could not give details on how many ICE officers had been deployed to assist TSA or which airports they were stationed at due to operational security concerns.
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.
President Donald Trump said on social media Wednesday that he may deploy the National Guard to help at airports plagued by long security lines.
Trump said, “I may call up the National Guard for more help” after already ordering federal immigration agents to assist with security at airports.
Joseph Nunn, a legal scholar focused on domestic military activities at the Brennan Center for Justice, said Trump could likely make it work by asking governors to send in state troops who haven’t been federalized. They could perform law enforcement duties such as running X-ray machines and checking identification.
“If a governor doesn’t do that, it will limit his options,” Nunn said.
Troops federalized by the president couldn’t perform duties similar to those of security screeners because of the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws, Nunn said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’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.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said that they needed to see real changes. “We’ve been talking about ICE reforms from day one,” he said.
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.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Wednesday that if Democrats put a “more realistic offer on the table, we’ll be back in business.”
Democrats are insisting on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal officers during protests.
The latest GOP proposal would fund most of DHS except for the enforcement and removal operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that have been central to the debate. The plan would provide money for 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, such as requirements that federal agents wear identification and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places.
The Transportation Security Administration may have to shut down operations at some airports if the budget impasse drags on, the agency’s acting head said Wednesday, even as record wait time for travelers did little to end the standoff over the funding fight in Congress.
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 testified at a House hearing, warning of potential airport closures. “At this point, we have to look at all options on the table. And that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.”
