THE INSANE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN. On March 1, an immigrant from Senegal, apparently angry over the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, donned a T-shirt that said “Property of Allah,” grabbed a Koran, a pistol, and a semi-automatic rifle, and headed toward a popular nightlife area in Austin, Texas. There, he shot and killed three people and wounded 14 others before police killed him.
On March 12, an immigrant from Sierra Leone who had served years in prison for providing material support to ISIS took a rifle and, yelling “Allahu Akbar,” started shooting as he walked into an Army ROTC classroom at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He killed one person and critically wounded two others before students jumped him and killed him.
Also on March 12, just an hour or two later, an immigrant from Lebanon whose brother, a Hezbollah commander recently killed, along with other family members, by an Israeli airstrike, loaded his truck with a gun, heavy fireworks, and containers of gasoline and, hoping to set off a conflagration, rammed the vehicle into a synagogue and school with 140 schoolchildren inside in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. The truck did not explode, and the man shot himself after exchanging fire with a security guard.
It’s a dangerous time, and given events around the globe and the degree to which the United States, through its immigration policy, has imported some ancient grievances and conflicts, Americans can probably expect further acts of terrorism in the U.S. So what have Capitol Hill lawmakers, and particularly Democratic lawmakers, done? They have decided to stretch and demoralize security forces at the nation’s airports at a moment when security should be increased, not burdened.
The situation is the result of a standoff in Congress over the enforcement of federal immigration law. After the ugly scenes in Minneapolis earlier this year, in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents scuffled with protesters and shot and killed two protesters in separate confrontations, Democrats demanded changes in the way ICE operates.
Democrats vowed not to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, unless their demands were met. It was a weird scenario because, as it turned out, ICE funding for the rest of the year had already been secured in last year’s Big Beautiful Bill, so Democrats could not shut that off. But the Department of Homeland Security also includes other agencies — FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and the Transportation Security Administration. Democrats could shut off funding for those agencies, essentially holding them hostage while demanding changes at ICE.
So that is what they did. The shutdown began on February 14. And now, the agents who do security screenings at the airports across the country are working without pay. So far, they have missed one full paycheck and part of another.
It has been a struggle. “TSA workers, whose salaries average about $50,000, have been hit hard during recent government shutdowns,” the New York Times reported. “Though federal law requires that federal workers receive back pay at the conclusion of a shutdown, workers often struggle to recover from those periods without a paycheck.”
To make matters worse, the Times continued, “The current pause started barely three months after the end of another shutdown, during which many TSA workers took on second jobs to cover basic living expenses. Though they received back pay when the government reopened after 43 days, many workers have depleted their rainy day funds or have lived on credit they are still paying off, according to union representatives.”
So far, nearly all TSA workers are staying on the job, but an estimated 300 have left TSA, and more will likely follow. Those staying on will be highly stressed. And on top of that, they will be required to deal with a threat situation that, because of world events, could be much more hazardous than usual.
This is crazy. In order to fund TSA and other agencies, Democrats demand that the Trump administration make “dramatic changes” in the way ICE operates. Among the Democrats’ demands are that ICE agents stop wearing masks, start wearing bodycams, and obtain judicial warrants for many of the cases they handle.
The first two demands don’t seem all that difficult. After all, bodycams and unmasked faces are regular parts of police work in the United States. But the judicial warrant requirement could slow ICE’s work to a virtual standstill, which, of course, is what Democrats want. So far, Republicans have not agreed to give in to the Democrats’ demand.
What will happen? Past government shutdowns were usually more widespread and quickly sparked public disapproval. Because this shutdown is so narrow and TSA workers have so far shown up for work, allowing air travel to go on, there has been little controversy so far. Democrats have been able to dig in and starve the workers of their wages without paying a political price.
But we live in a dangerous world. Terrorists are already on the move in the United States, as the three recent incidents cited above show. Does it make any sense for the U.S. to let down its guard at precisely the same time?
