GOP Floats Partial DHS Rescue Plan as Airport Chaos Mounts

94% Offer: GOP Tries to Reopen DHS Without Full ICE Funding Amid Airport Gridlock

• Senate Republicans propose funding 94% of Homeland Security while carving out ICE deportation units.
• President Trump rejected any compromise less than 24 hours earlier, prolonging the partial shutdown.
• Major hubs report three-hour TSA lines as unpaid screeners call in sick at double the normal rate.
• Democrats demand warrant requirements and mask bans for agents before releasing any ICE money.

The clock is ticking: every missed travel day costs the U.S. economy an estimated $150 million.

DHS SHUTDOWN—Washington’s immigration wars collided with America’s spring-break travel surge Tuesday when Senate Republicans floated a partial rescue of the Department of Homeland Security—offering to bankroll every component except the slice of Immigration and Customs Enforcement executing President Trump’s deportation blitz. The proposal landed barely a day after Trump dismissed a broader bipartisan framework, underscoring the intra-party rift complicating any path to reopen an agency now limping through its sixth day of shutdown.

The GOP pitch, delivered to Democratic leaders shortly after 3 p.m., would release roughly 94 percent of DHS’s annual appropriation, according to Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota. Yet it deliberately withholds the estimated $3.8 billion the White House requested to expand detention beds, surge federal agents to sanctuary jurisdictions and accelerate case processing—funds Democrats fear would supercharge warrant-less raids already being documented in multiple states.

Travelers are feeling the fallout in real time. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, normally the world’s busiest airport, reported security waits exceeding 180 minutes at every concourse Tuesday evening, while Chicago O’Hare canceled 47 morning departures after TSA sick-outs jumped to 12 percent of scheduled screeners—double the agency’s historical absentee rate during past budget lapses. Industry group Airlines for America warns that each day of reduced DHS operations drains roughly $150 million from the broader economy through missed connections, cargo delays and lost tourism dollars.

Inside the 11th-Hour GOP Offer: What Gets Funded, What Doesn’t

Republican negotiators structured their latest bill as a narrow, single-agency continuing resolution that would keep every DHS component—Coast Guard pay, TSA overtime, Secret Service protection, cyber-security defenses—at current levels through the end of the fiscal year. The catch: line items explicitly tagged for ICE’s ‘Enforcement and Removal Operations’ would be zeroed out until a separate immigration agreement is reached, effectively freezing new hiring, expansion of detention facilities and the administration’s signature ‘family ops’ that have led to hundreds of arrests in workplaces and schools.

“We’re not holding the traveling public hostage,” Thune told reporters outside the Senate chamber. “Ninety-four percent funding is a pragmatic interim step while we debate the remaining six.” Democrats counter that the withheld slice equals roughly $3.8 billion—money they argue is large enough to reshape immigration enforcement nationwide yet small enough on paper to appear symbolic.

What Democrats want in return

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer signaled he will return a counter-offer by Wednesday morning that includes statutory guardrails long sought by immigrant-rights groups: a ban on masked ICE entries, a requirement for judicial warrants before agents enter homes or businesses, and quarterly public reporting of enforcement statistics broken down by zip code. “We’re not writing a blank check for cruelty,” Schumer said on the floor, citing reports of pre-dawn arrests at Denver-area churches last weekend.

Historical precedent favors the opposition: in the 2018-19 shutdown that centered on border-wall funding, Democrats successfully withheld $5.7 billion requested by then-President Trump for 35 days until GOP senators buckled. This time, however, Republicans control the gavel and can force votes on piecemeal spending bills—a procedural edge that raises the pressure on Schumer’s caucus to compromise.

Aviation analysts say the economic pain is already eclipsing the 2019 lapse. When adjusted for inflation, daily losses to GDP are tracking 18 percent higher, according to Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor. “Travel volume is up 12 percent versus five years ago, but TSA staffing is flat, so every sick-out cascades faster through the system,” Zhao notes. If the standoff drags past the weekend, carriers may begin pre-emptively trimming spring-break schedules, a move that would ripple through hotel and restaurant bookings.

Bottom line: the GOP offer keeps paychecks flowing to 180,000 DHS employees, but leaves the most contentious element—immigration enforcement funding—unresolved, setting up another cliff in a matter of weeks.

Airport Chaos by the Numbers: How TSA Sick-Outs Are Spiking

Data released Tuesday by the Transportation Security Administration show 8.3 percent of its 46,000 officers called in sick—triple the 2.7 percent baseline recorded during the same week in 2025. The trend line is accelerating: Monday’s absence rate was 7.1 percent, meaning an additional 550 officers stayed home within 24 hours. Unpaid wages are the obvious catalyst; TSA workers earn an average $42,000 a year and missed their first paycheck Friday.

Hubs hit hardest

Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Seattle and Orlando all reported wait times above 90 minutes for at least four consecutive hours. At Denver International, the queue snaked into the parking garage at 5 a.m. local time, forcing 1,200 travelers to rebook flights, according to airport spokeswoman Stacey Stegman. Cargo screening is also lagging: FedEx and UPS combined had 47 tons of freight delayed Monday night, threatening next-day pharmaceutical deliveries.

Former TSA Administrator David Pekoske, who led the agency during the 2019 lapse, says morale plummets faster in 2026 because officers remember the last shutdown ended with back-pay. “This time there’s lingering doubt Congress will agree quickly, so people seek other income immediately,” Pekoske told The Times. Nearly 1,400 TSA employees have filed unemployment claims in Florida alone since Friday, state labor data show.

Economic modeling from the U.S. Travel Association projects that if absence rates top 10 percent for a full week, daily GDP loss could reach $200 million as business travelers scrap trips and supply chains reroute cargo. The same analysis found leisure travelers are less price-sensitive than once assumed—only 12 percent would cancel a prepaid vacation—but corporate travel managers report 38 percent of meetings already shifted to video, a substitution that erodes airline premium-cabin revenue.

Looking ahead, the industry’s trade group has asked the Pentagon to detail up to 2,000 National Guard members with security clearance to back-fill TSA posts, a contingency last invoked after 9/11. Defense officials say no formal request has arrived, but conversations are “active.” Without a deal by Friday, analysts predict major carriers will begin publishing flexible-rebooking waivers, the first step toward schedule reductions.

Schumer’s Red Lines: Why Judicial Warrants Have Become the Sticking Point

Democrats’ insistence on judicial warrants for ICE operations marks a tactical shift from past shutdowns, when the fight centered mainly on dollar amounts. The proposed language, reviewed by The Times, would require agents to secure a federal judge’s approval before entering “a private dwelling, place of worship, school or medical facility” unless exigent circumstances exist. Supporters cite a 2022 Georgetown Law study that found 62 percent of ICE arrests in New Jersey occurred without judicial warrants, often relying on administrative forms that bypass courts.

“It’s about restoring basic Fourth Amendment protections,” argues Senator Alex Padilla of California, an author of the provision. Immigration courts already face a 3.1-million-case backlog, but backers say warrant hearings can be conducted within 24 hours via teleconference, minimizing delay. Critics counter that the requirement would hamstring interior enforcement and encourage absconding.

Precedent in criminal law

Constitutional scholars note that the Supreme Court’s 1952 ruling in United States v. Martinez-Fuerte carved out broad exceptions for border searches, but those precedents apply within 100 miles of an external boundary. Roughly 197 million Americans—60 percent of the population—live in that zone, according to the ACLU, magnifying Democrats’ concerns about unchecked authority.

Public polling released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University shows 54 percent of registered voters support a warrant requirement for home entries, while 35 percent oppose it. Support rises to 67 percent among independents when the question specifies “private homes,” suggesting Democrats may have political latitude to hold firm. Conversely, the same survey finds 49 percent want ICE funding restored immediately to shorten airport lines, complicating the caucus’s message discipline.

Behind closed doors, moderate Democratic senators facing re-election in 2028—including Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman and Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto—have urged leadership to decouple the warrant issue from the broader spending bill, fearing a prolonged impasse could dent their crossover appeal. For now, Schumer’s strategy is to keep the two linked, calculating that mounting traveler frustration will force Republicans to accept guardrails rather than risk an economic dip.

What Happens If Talks Collapse? Shutdown Pathways and Economic Fallout

Failure to reach agreement by the end of the week would trigger two immediate consequences: first, the administration would escalate what it calls “targeted furloughs,” exempting border-patrol agents while sending home 32,000 FEMA, Coast Guard and cybersecurity workers; second, House Republicans would move a symbolic one-week patch to shift blame to the Senate, a tactic leadership aides say could pass narrowly but stands no chance in the upper chamber.

Macro-economic consultancy Moody’s Analytics estimates that each additional week of partial closure shaves 0.05 percentage points off quarterly GDP growth. Applied to the current $28 trillion economy, that equals about $3.5 billion in lost output per week, a figure that compounds if federal contractors lay off staff or private lenders tighten credit amid uncertainty.

Debt ceiling collision risk

Perhaps more perilous, the Treasury’s extraordinary measures to avoid breaching the statutory debt limit are projected to run out in mid-May. If DHS appropriations are still hostage by then, Speaker Mike Johnson could face pressure to package the two must-pass bills, a maneuver that rattled bond markets in 2023 and triggered a credit-rating warning from Fitch. Bond yields on 3-month T-bills have already crept up 7 basis points since the shutdown began, reflecting investor jitters.

State capitols are also bracing for ripple effects. California’s Legislative Analyst Office says 18,000 state National Guard personnel rely on DHS training dollars that dry up in a prolonged lapse; New York’s Division of Homeland Security has paused $97 million in port-security grants. “We’re essentially paying to maintain heightened alert levels without knowing when federal reimbursement will arrive,” New York budget director Robert Mujica told local radio.

Market reaction has so far been muted because investors assume a deal will emerge, but strategists at J.P. Morgan warn that if air-travel disruptions push consumer confidence below 95—a threshold last breached during the 2018 stock rout—equity volatility could spike. Their model shows the S&P 500 falling an additional 4 percent under that scenario, wiping roughly $1.6 trillion in market value.

For now, both parties are calculating who blinks first. Republicans believe images of crowded airports will pressure suburban Democrats in swing states; Democrats wager that stories of warrant-less raids will galvanize their base. Unless one side’s pain threshold is reached soon, the impasse could drag into next month, merging with the debt-ceiling debate and raising the stakes exponentially.

Can a Bipartisan Escape Hatch Still Emerge Before the Weekend?

Despite public posturing, senior senators in both parties say a narrow deal is possible if leaders accept a two-step process: pass an immediate ‘clean’ DHS extension through April 15, then pivot to a comprehensive immigration package that raises the visa cap for farmworkers and codifies protections for so-called Dreamers in exchange for enhanced border technology. The framework borrows from the 2013 Gang of Eight bill that cleared the Senate with 68 votes but died in the House.

Key moderates—including Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona—have quietly circulated a three-page outline that would fund ICE at 98 percent of the White House request while attaching sunset clauses on warrant and mask provisions, allowing both sides to claim victory. Collins says she has 11 Republican colleagues willing to buck leadership if Majority Leader Thune guarantees an amendment vote, a number that combined with 48 Democrats would break a filibuster.

Presidential wildcard

President Trump has offered mixed signals. In a late-night post on Truth Social he denounced “RINO surrender,” yet told Fox News earlier Tuesday he could accept limits on home raids if Democrats “stop holding airports hostage.” Advisers say he is sensitive to cable-news footage of families missing flights, fearing it could dent his approval among suburban women—a cohort that polls show has slipped below 40 percent since the shutdown began.

House dynamics complicate any grand bargain. Speaker Johnson commands only a 219-212 majority, meaning loss of more than two Republicans sinks a bill. The hard-right House Freedom Caucus has vowed to oppose any plan that curtails ICE discretion, while the moderate Republican Governance Group insists on reopening DHS before the weekend. One potential compromise being floated would attach a non-binding ‘sense of Congress’ opposing warrant mandates, giving conservatives rhetorical cover without legal force.

Leadership aides say the next 48 hours are critical. If Senate negotiators can finalize legislative text by Thursday evening, the chamber could vote Saturday morning, sending a bill to the House where bipartisan discharge petitions—though rare—have succeeded under deadline pressure. Absent an accord, both chambers will likely decamp for the weekend, leaving 46,000 TSA officers unpaid and travelers bracing for deeper delays.

Whatever the outcome, the episode has already reshaped immigration politics. By yoking ICE funding to everyday travel hassles, Republicans have forced Democrats to litigate enforcement tactics in real time, while Democrats have spotlighted civil-liberties concerns that could haunt GOP candidates in swing districts. The ultimate resolution will almost certainly be temporary, teeing up another clash when the short-term patch expires—just as the 2026 mid-term campaign season kicks into gear.