Airport disruptions abound as U.S. senators chase deal to end Homeland Security budget standoff

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., talks to reporters about a funding bill to end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown that began more than a month ago, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON — Travel disruptions deepened Tuesday as U.S. senators raced to salvage a proposal to end the Homeland Security shutdown by funding much of the department, including airport workers going without pay, but excluding immigration operations that have been core to the dispute.

The sudden sense of urgency comes as U.S. airports are snarled by long security lines, with travelers being told to arrive hours before their flights in Houston, Atlanta and Baltimore/Washington International.

Routine Department of Homeland Security funding was halted in mid-February ahead of the busy spring travel season. Nearly 11 per cent of Transportation Security Administration workers who were scheduled to report for duty Monday -- more than 3,200 -- missed work, and at least 458 have have quit altogether since the shutdown began, according to DHS.

Democrats are refusing to fund the department without restraints on Trump’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after federal agents killed two citizens in Minneapolis.

“The time to end this is now,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

But Democrats panned the offer as insufficient. And President Donald Trump himself was noncommittal.

“I think any deal they make, I’m pretty much not happy with it,” Trump said at an event at the White House swearing in his new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

Airport conditions have become increasingly unpredictable with swelling crowds seen in major hubs. Travelers headed to LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports in New York -- as well as Newark Liberty International in neighboring New Jersey -- still couldn’t check online TSA wait times Tuesday morning.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were spotted in terminals, including at Philadelphia International Airport, where a protester was seen at one of the checkpoints holding a sign criticizing ICE. In Houston, passengers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport spent hours Tuesday navigating meandering security lines that twisted and turned across multiple floors.

Acting TSA administrator Ha McNeil said multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40 per cent call out rates, according to prepared remarks she will give Wednesday to the House Committee on Homeland Security.

She is also expected to tell lawmakers of the personal toll the shutdown has had on TSA workers who “are running out of options to keep a roof over their head and put food on the table.”

Hopes for a quick deal

The contours of the deal emerged once a group of Republican senators met with Trump at the White House late Monday, after he upended talks and deployed federal immigration officers at certain airport security checkpoints -- a move some lawmakers warned could lead to heightened tensions.

The proposal would fund most of Homeland Security, but not one main part of ICE -- the enforcement and removal operations that are core to Trump’s deportation agenda.

Under the plan, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations would be funded as well as Customs and Border Protection, and it would include funding for officers to wear body cameras, but few other restraints.

The proposal was not substantially different from one the two sides had already agreed on before the deaths sparked demands for more changes, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the details, which have not been publicly released.

For example, there was no mandate that immigration officers wear identification or other changes the White House had floated earlier in talks, including a ban on immigration enforcement at schools, churches, hospitals and other sensitive places, the person said.

While the ICE officers manning airports are going without face-covering masks, the Democratic demand that they go unmasked during immigration operations does not appear to be part of the deal.

“We need strong, strong reforms and we need to rein in ICE,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

Since so much of ICE is already funded through Trump’s big tax breaks bill, immigration officers are still receiving paychecks despite the shutdown.

Congress is controlled by the Republican president’s party, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his party members insist on “bold” changes to ICE.

On Tuesday, Delta Air Lines confirmed it was suspending its specialty services for members of Congress amid the shutdown, meaning those who fly with the carrier will be treated like other passengers based on their SkyMiles status. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported the suspension.

Political standoff, long airport lines

Efforts to end the standoff stalled when Trump linked any deal to his push to pass the so-called SAVE America Act, a strict proof-of-citizenship and voter ID bill that has stalled in the Senate ahead of the midterm elections. Some GOP senators have pitched him on the idea of tackling it in another legislative package.

“It’s not a perfect deal but I think it works,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who met with Trump and thinks the president is on board. “If you’re waiting in line four hours in Atlanta, this madness needs to come to an end.”

The White House on Tuesday stressed that conversations were ongoing. But it also said an agreement to split off immigration enforcement funding, while addressing Trump’s elections bill separately, “seems to be acceptable.”

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said his understanding was that there was a “sense of urgency” coming from the talks as the airport disruptions worsen.

Changes at Homeland Security

The deal could provide a political exit from the standoff over the embattled Department of Homeland Security, which was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but has come to symbolize Trump’s aggressive mass deportation agenda, with its goal of removing 1 million immigrants this year.

Under mounting political pressure, Trump ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid the public outcry over the immigration operations, and senators late Monday confirmed Mullin, one of their own, as the president’s handpicked replacement.

Mullin, a former Oklahoma senator aligned with Trump’s agenda, provides a potentially new face for the department. He told senators during his confirmation hearing that he supported another key demand of Democrats -- ensuring a judge has signed off on warrants that immigration officers use to search people’s homes, rather than simply relying on administrative warrants issued by the department.

“This is significant,” Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said about the progress toward changes. “Noem is gone. That’s a big deal.”

ICE’s budget grew under last year’s bill by $75 billion, which has been untouched by the shutdown. Rather, its routine annual funding, some $10 billion, would be cut almost in half under the proposal.

By Lisa Mascaro And Joey Cappelletti.

Associated Press writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Kevin Freking and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.