US Congress closer to restoring airport security funding, immigration fight still unresolved

The U.S. House of Representatives could vote as soon as Friday on a measure to end a six-week partial government shutdown that has caused severe delays at airports across the country, though it does not resolve an underlying dispute over President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration enforcement.

Legislation passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in an overnight vote would restore funding for most of the Department of Homeland Security, including airport security screeners, disaster-response workers and members of the U.S. Coast Guard, who have worked without pay since mid-February.

It does not provide funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or the Border Patrol. It also omits new limits on immigration agents' tactics that Democrats have demanded as a condition for ending the impasse.

House members were told that a vote on the bill could come on Friday or over the weekend, as lawmakers from both parties huddled to discuss next steps.

The shutdown has led to long lines at U.S. airports, and many of the 50,000 security officers who have gone without pay have called in sick or resigned. Airports in Houston and Atlanta told passengers to expect wait times of up to four hours at checkpoints on Friday morning, though other major airports reported shorter lines. 

Democrats, the minority party in both houses of the U.S. Congress, used what little leverage they have to block DHS funding after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Democratic lawmakers want to impose restraints on Trump's immigration-enforcement push that has resulted in more than half a million deportations and created chaos in U.S. cities. 

The partial government shutdown did not affect that activity, as both ICE and Customs and Border Patrol are able to draw on separate funding from the sweeping tax and spending bill Republicans passed last year.

Republicans are expected to try to secure new funding on their own through a cumbersome procedure that would allow them to bypass Democratic opposition.

Locked out of power in Washington, Democrats have forced two government shutdowns in the past six months. Neither delivered the results they sought, as they failed to secure expiring health subsidies last November and came out of the latest standoff without a deal on immigration enforcement.  

Still, Trump's administration has backed off, at least for now, from the confrontational and at times violent tactics that sparked mass protests in Minneapolis, Chicago and other cities.

Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this month. Her successor, former Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, has signaled support for some Democratic proposals, such as limiting the ability of agents to forcibly enter homes without a judicial warrant.

"Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump's rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Other Democratic proposals are likely dead in the water. Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, said their call for agents to operate without masks was a "nonstarter." 

"It's not about reforming," Homan said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas. "It's about crippling ICE. It's about taking away their authorities."

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said Democrats had damaged Congress' annual funding process, weakened national security, and set a precedent that they may come to regret.  

"Democrats remained intransigent and unreasonable with their list of demands," she said in a statement.