(The Lion)–President Donald Trump ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Officers to assist with airport chaos across the country as TSA agents are absent or working without pay on the 38th day of the partial government shutdown.
“I want to thank ICE because they stepped in so strongly. And they’ll do great,” Trump told Fox News Monday. “And if that’s not enough, I’ll bring in the National Guard. We’re not going to have the Democrats destroy our country.”
Lines for the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport snaked outside the main entrance doors at 5 a.m. Monday morning. “The American people don’t deserve this,” one traveler waiting in line with her family told Fox News.
“Congress needs to get to work, get it done, the American people don’t deserve this,” she said. “TSA needs to get paid, this is ridiculous!”
The funding impasse is due to Senate Democrats’ refusal to approve DHS funding until certain reforms are made to immigration enforcement, even despite a softer approach from the Trump administration.
“The Democrats want this problem,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, told KCMO Talk Radio Monday morning of the shutdown. “They want to continue to put their political whims ahead of national security.”
Marshall said some Democrat committee members finally met with Republicans for the first time Thursday and Friday, but they have refused to meet since. Marshall says he thinks Democrats’ long-term strategy is large scale amnesty and a path toward voting for non-citizens.
After Trump ordered ICE to assist TSA at airports across the country – fulfilling his Saturday promise to do so – he requested they remove their masks while serving traveling Americans.
“Then this morning I saw there were masks on, so I put out a statement saying would it be possible to take off the masks,” he told CNN. “But they should wear a mask when they’re dealing with the murderers and the thugs let into our country.”
Also over the weekend, Elon Musk pledged to pay the salary of TSA agents, but government policy may not permit a private citizen to fund federal employees, according to Fox News.
When asked about being paid while TSA agents weren’t, Marshall said he may consider not taking his salary, as in October during the longest government shutdown in history.
As far as a path to secure DHS funding, Marshall sees a couple of options, the most likely of which is reconciliation.
“We need to do reconciliation. It only takes 50 votes to fund DHS. I think we’re here until DHS opens up again,” he said.
