Republicans Holding Airport Security Hostage To Protect ICE's Thuggish Behavior

Our airports are currently a mess. It can take four or five hours (sometimes longer) just to get through the TSA checks. This means many people are missing their flights because they arrived at the airport only two or three hours early. 

Why is this happening? Because TSA agents are not being paid. Congressional Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless ICE agents were required to rein in their thuggish (and sometimes even illegal) behavior. That was reasonable, and supported by most of the public (who are upset by ICE actions).

The problem is that ICE is not the only part of the government funded under the Department of Homeland Security. Airport TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard are also funded by DHS money. This gave the Republicans the opening they needed to try and protect ICE from needed reforms. While ICE got extra money from the last funding bill (and can continue to operate), TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard did not. 

That means airport security agents are not being paid, the Coast Guard is not being paid, and disaster victims are not getting the help they need. The most immediate problem (the one making the national news) is the long lines at airport security. That is intentional - as Republicans want to use that to try and force Democrats into abandoning reforms to ICE. 

But those long lines at airports are not really the fault of Democrats. Democrats have repeatedly offered to separate and fully fund TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard. Congressional Republicans refused. They know the American people want the reforms to ICE, and refusing to fund TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard is the only pressure they have to protect ICE from the reforms.

Don't believe any Republican who tells you the long airport lines are the fault of Democrats. They are not. Those lines exist because the Republicans want them to exist - and they think the American public is stupid to believe their lies about it.