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(Washington) “Please arrive three hours early”: New Orleans airport on Monday urged its users to plan widely due to significant delays at security checks, a situation observed in many other American airports, affected by the budgetary paralysis of the Department of Homeland Security.
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Since February 14, funding for DHS – the department responsible in particular for security checks at airports – has been frozen due to the deep dispute between Democrats and Republicans in Congress over the practices of immigration enforcement (ICE).
Due to this partial paralysis, thousands of federal civil servants have been placed on technical unemployment, while thousands of others, in functions considered essential, continue to work. In both cases, their salaries will not be paid until lawmakers agree on a budget for DHS, on which ICE depends.
Faced with this situation, some civil servants prefer to stay at home rather than work with a frozen paycheck, resulting in an impressive lengthening of queues to board planes.
In addition to Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans, long queues have been observed in recent days at the two main airports in Houston, and even in Atlanta.
The leader of the Republicans in the Senate, John Thune, denounced Monday the lack of progress in negotiations with the opposition, of which a certain number of votes is necessary to adopt a budget.
“The Democrats sent two offers to the White House, two offers that were basically the same. No compromise, no give and take, just take it or leave it,” he said.
For their part, Democratic officials are refusing to approve a budget for DHS until major reforms are put in place for ICE.
Their opposition to the agency’s practices only grew after the deaths within weeks of each other in January of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two Americans shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis.
“What we want is for ICE to behave like any other law enforcement agency in the country, instead of using taxpayer dollars to brutalize, or in some cases kill, American citizens,” Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in an interview with NBC News on Sunday.
