The next time your flight is delayed, canceled, or you’re stuck in an endless TSA line, thank congressional Democrats.
Senate Democrats have decided to make a show of their support for lawless immigration by inflicting pain on American travelers through a deliberate funding block of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). This action targets TSA workers’ pay while leaving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fully funded—the agency Democrats claim they want to punish.
With TSA agents not receiving pay, more than 300 have already quit or stopped showing up, seeking jobs that Senator Chuck Schumer cannot hold hostage.
It’s bad enough congressional Democrats are taking their anger at immigration enforcement out on American travelers; what’s worse is they’re doing it during wartime. Do we want less airport security—or unhappy, unpaid agents—when terrorist attacks are more likely?
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., shouldn’t wait for someone to blow a plane out of the sky before rethinking his tactics.
There is no good-faith reason for Democrats to turn their outrage at ICE into a shutdown of other DHS divisions. They’re playing a legislative game with travelers’ livelihoods and safety.
The Department of Homeland Security reports more than 300 TSA agents have already quit during this partial shutdown. Who can blame them? Do Democrats expect them to work for free?
This isn’t a shutdown forced on Congress by debt ceiling decisions; it’s gratuitous, motivated by pure partisan maneuvering.
Schumer and his colleagues are keen to use ICE as a midterm campaign issue—not only because they hope the deaths of two left-wing activists during anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota this winter will scare independents into opposing President Donald Trump’s immigration policies but also because Democrats need to appease progressives in their base who want more illegal immigration.
The Dems keep trying to have it both ways: presenting themselves as willing to countenance some restrictions on immigration while pandering to activists who demand limitless immigration—even if that means it’s lawless.
The Joe Biden administration didn’t fail to enforce the nation’s immigration laws; it chose to ignore them to the maximum extent it could get away with. His party hasn’t changed its ways since voters rebuked it two years ago by sending Trump back to the White House.
Senate Democrats’ antics are proof of that: they’re happy to make life harder for American travelers and government employees if it makes life easier for illegal aliens.
Voters should be mindful of this in the run-up to the midterms. The Senate Democrats did that to you because they wanted to make a point. Come November 3, 2026, you can make one too.
