Trump rejects Senate proposal to reopen DHS without ICE funding
The deployment of ICE agents to airports comes as the partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown nears the 40-day mark. The president nixed one potential solution over the weekend that would have funded some agencies, including TSA. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins reports on the latest negotiations to fully reopen the government.
Geoff Bennett:
The new deployment of ICE agents to airports comes as the partial DHS shutdown near the 40-day mark. The president nixed one potential solution over the weekend that would have funded some agencies, including TSA.
Our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, is here with more on the negotiations to fully reopen the government.
So, Lisa, we will start there. What’s the latest?
Lisa Desjardins:
All right, if you remember nothing else from this report — and I know our viewers remember everything.
Geoff Bennett:
they certainly do.
Lisa Desjardins:
Remember these three things. Number one, the president just made this more complicated. Number two, the chances of ending this DHS shutdown this week have now become slimmer.
Geoff Bennett:
Really?
Lisa Desjardins:
But, number three, everything can change quickly.
(Laughter)
Geoff Bennett:
Okay. So say more about that. How?
Lisa Desjardins:
Right. Okay.
So let’s talk about these dynamics that made it more complicated. First of all, I’m going to recap what has become a very chaotic weather system. Let me look at this a little bit more clearly here. President Trump last night posted on TRUTH Social in his account.
He wrote that:
“I don’t think we should make any deals with Democrats.” He wants that election I.D. law, the SAVE America Act, to pass first. That’s what he’s prioritizing here. He said Republicans should stay in Washington, all Congress should, through the Easter recess.
Now, with that, what he’s doing is, he’s making things more complicated, not for Democrats, but for Republicans, who don’t have the votes for the SAVE Act. Now, yesterday, sources familiar told me that Senate Republicans raised the idea of funding all of DHS except for ICE, White House staffers briefed the president, and he personally rejected that idea in a phone call with Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Meanwhile, what about Democrats? Well, last week, moderate Democrats were talking with Tom Homan from DHS about trying to find a deal. But instead now they are more united in trying to get more from the administration. And those talks from Democrats are in limbo.
So President Trump said today, trying to blame Democrats for where we are, that Democrats insisted that they want a deal. But Democrats say there was no such phone call at all, and they don’t know what the president is talking about.
Geoff Bennett:
So how are the TSA lines, the airport safety issues that we reported on earlier, how is that affecting these talks?
Lisa Desjardins:
Right.
I have to say from talking to sources in both parties that, in a counterintuitive way, I think that these lines are actually making it more difficult to reach a solution right now. Let me explain why. Democratic sources see the polling, including from Quinnipiac, that shows more Americans blame Republicans for what’s happening at our airports than blame Democrats.
Usually, the party that starts the shutdown, in this case, Democrats sparked it, gets the blame. But Democrats are saying, hey, we will fund TSA. And they’re blaming Republicans for this.
Meanwhile, President Trump is seeing the solution as sending ICE agents to airports, not in compromising with Democrats. So that also is making it harder to reach that kind of compromise.
Geoff Bennett:
So, what should we watch for now?
Lisa Desjardins:
There’s a lot to watch for.
First of all, the question is, does Congress stay in town this weekend or not? They are leaving supposedly for a two-week recess. You and I both know nothing motivates Congress more than a kind of Easter recess. But in this chaotic weather system, that really has become just kind of like a fragment blowing around in the wind.
We will see what happens in the next few days. The other pressure points will be TSA workers. Hundreds of thousands of workers will miss perhaps a month of paycheck by the end of this week. So we will see if there’s more stories about that.
Now also, Trump, how much is he pushing for the SAVE Act? How much does he keep that up? In all, remember those three points I said? Number one, they’re still true. This has become more complicated. It has become more uphill ending the shutdown. But it’s day by day. It could change quickly.
Geoff Bennett:
Lisa Desjardins tracking it all.
I don’t know how you do it. Thank you.
Lisa Desjardins:
You’re welcome.
