The Democratic Party’s shutdown of the bulk of the Department of Homeland Security is now the second-longest funding gap in history. It’s delaying paychecks for millions of federal workers until there’s a resolution to the impasse, with congressional Democrats clamoring for restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation tactics, meeting resistance from President Donald Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans.

Democrats have managed to shut down the apparatus of government that the highest number of ordinary Americans deal with daily — the Transportation Security Administration, since airport workers, among others, are currently doing their jobs without pay. Yet Democratic demands don’t remotely affect the deportation operations lawmakers claim are at the core of their objection.