Michelle Hackman

It's because the Department of Homeland Security hasn't been funded for more than a month, which means TSA agents who are under DHS haven't gotten paychecks for more than a month, and they're starting to walk off the job.

Over the weekend, Trump announced on Truth Social that ICE was going to take over and help with airport security.

It's pretty unprecedented.

I mean, obviously, we've been in this situation before where there have been government shutdowns and TSA has gone unpaid.

But it's the first time that a president has thought, let's send in our immigration guys.

There was a near-total government shutdown just a few months ago, and TSA was obviously a victim of that, too.

Democrats really stood their ground and said, we are not funding the Department of Homeland Security unless this administration agrees to some limits on ISIS powers, some sort of guardrails on how they're allowed to operate.

They want a few things.

I would say their two biggest demands are that ICE shouldn't be allowed to wear masks to cover their faces.

And the other big one has to do with judicial warrants.

Basically, there's this issue where ICE has said,

We've decided unilaterally, and they did so actually secretly.

They didn't even announce this policy change or even widely circulate it.

But they said, we're going to allow our officers to break into people's homes to look for an immigrant if that person has received an order of deportation.

The problem is that the Constitution's Fourth Amendment says everyone, immigrants and citizens alike, have this protection against unnecessary search and seizure.

And so typically you need a judge to sign a warrant to break into someone's house.

And ICE was skipping that step.

And so Democrats wanted to write into the law, like, no, you must actually go get a warrant if you want to break into someone's home.

Republicans and the White House in particular refused to sort of meet the Democrats' demands, and so DHS was allowed to shut down.

The thing you have to remember about TSA agents is they're remarkably low paid.