Next time your flight's delayed or canceled, or you're stuck in an endless TSA line, thank a congressional Democrat.
Senate Dems have decided to make a show of their support for lawless immigration by inflicting pain on American travelers.
They've blocked funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, even though this stunt doesn't affect the budget of the agency Democrats really want to hurt, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE already has the funding it needs — but TSA doesn't, which means airport security workers aren't getting paid, so many aren't showing up, or they're quitting to find jobs Chuck Schumer can't hold hostage.
It's bad enough congressional Democrats are taking their anger at immigration enforcement out on American travelers; what's yet worse is they're doing it wartime.
Do we want less airport security — or unhappy, unpaid agents — at a moment when terrorist attacks are more likely?
Sen. Schumer shouldn't wait till someone blows 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 other people's livelihoods, travel plans and very lives.
DHS says more than 300 TSA agents have already quit during the partial shutdown.
Who can blame them — do Democrats expect them to work for free?
This isn't a shutdown forced on Congress by difficult decisions about the debt ceiling; this one's gratuitous, motivated by pure partisan angling.
Schumer and company 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 this winter will scare independents into opposing President Donald Trump's immigration policies, but also because Democrats need to appease progressives in the party's base who actually 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 a hard core of activists who demand immigration be limitless, even if that means it's also 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.
Their policy puts Americans last.
Voters should be mindful of that in the run-up to the midterms.
This November's elections are almost inevitably going to be a referendum on Donald Trump's first two years back in office.
Whatever voters are dissatisfied with, they'll chalk up to Trump and hold Republicans accountable for.
But Schumer's DHS extortion scheme is so brazen it just might backfire.
Presidents and CEOs of 10 major airlines and related industries and advocacy groups have put their names to an open letter calling on Congress to put a stop to this nonsense.
"TSA officers just received $0 paychecks. That is simply unacceptable. It's difficult, if not impossible, to put food on the table, put gas in the car and pay rent when you are not getting paid," the letter notes.
"With spring break travel in full swing, FIFA World Cup 2026 right around the corner and celebrations for America's 250th birthday throughout the year," the industry expects "171 million passengers this spring season," many of whom are already "having to wait in extraordinarily long — and painfully slow — lines at checkpoints."
The letter warns of queues so long they take up to four hours to get through.
There's no reason for that, other than the will of Schumer and his Democratic colleagues.
The industry heads want a set of new laws to make sure airlines and cargo companies like FedEx and UPS can't be treated like a "political football amid another government shutdown" every time — legislation that would ensure the funding of air-traffic controllers, TSA screeners and other critical personnel in the event of future shutdowns.
But ending this partial shutdown doesn't have to wait on passing any new laws: Schumer can end it today.
If he chooses not to, keep Schumer and his colleague in mind next time you're waiting for hours in a TSA line.
The Senate Democrats did that to you because they wanted to make a point.
Come Nov. 3, you can make one, too.
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Previously:
• 03/17/26: Cuba Should Accept Trump's 'Friendly Takeover'
• 03/03/26: Immigration Enforcement Saves Lives
• 02/24/26: How a Party Offends Its Voters
• 02/17/26: Why Are Anti-ICE Activists Building Borders?
• 02/10/26: A Japanese Lesson for Troubled Britain
• 02/03/26: The Trump Coalition Wins But the GOP Brand Doesn't
• 01/27/26: Canada Should Warm to Trump's Arctic Plans
• 01/20/26: From Rock to Tech, Talent Flees Taxes
• 01/13/26: Woman Who Weaponized Car Against I.C.E Endangered Her Life -- and Yours
• 01/06/26: Tim Walz Personifies Dems' Decline
• 12/30/25: Harvard Says Yes to Discrimination, No to Western Civ
• 12/23/25: JD Vance Gets America's Creed and Heritage Right
• 12/16/25: Trump's Inflation Trap
• 12/09/25: Biden's Immigration Debacle Is the Media's, Too
• 12/02/25: 'Iryna's Law' and the Bad Judges Who Make It Necessary
• 11/26/25: Marjorie Taylor Greene's Exit Is a Warning to Republicans
• 11/19/25: Trump Hasn't Lost Hispanics (Yet)
• 11/11/25: Trump's Tariffs on Trial
• 10/28/25: MAGA Makes Allies Great Again
• 10/21/25: How To Make the AmericaS Great Again
• 10/16/25: Columbus Day Celebrates Our Civilization
• 10/09/25: Why Sharpies Are Made in America Again
• 09/30/25: Assata Shakur and Other Parents of Political Violence
• 09/09/25: Who's Accountable for Autopen Pardons?
• 09/02/25: Gender dysphoria is a mental-illness, NOT an all-encompassing delusion
• 08/26/25: Trump's Industrial Policy Is Realism, Not Socialism
• 08/19/25: Is Gavin Newsom the Dems' Answer to Trump?
• 08/12/25: Just Say No to More Marijuana
• 08/05/25: Will the GOP Make Libs Generous Again?
• 07/30/25: Trump's Trade Lesson for Economists (and the World)
• 07/22/25: Whose Politics Canceled Stephen Colbert?
• 07/08/25: A Big Beautiful Test of GOP Principles and Discipline
• 07/01/25: Dems Need Populism, But Not Zohran's Sort
• 06/25/25: Secure Borders Win Wars Like This One
• 06/18/25: WEIRD Protesters Should Stay Home
• 06/17/25: WEIRD Protesters Should Stay Home
• 06/04/25: State that's long eluded GOP turns toward Trump
• 05/21/24: Trump's Sun Belt Hopes and Rust Belt Needs
• 05/14/24: What Trump Sees in Doug Burgum
• 05/07/24: The Vietnam Era Never Ended for Biden's Party
• 05/06/24: Nationalists of the World, Unite?
• 04/25/24: Foreign Policy Splits
• 04/16/24: How pro-lifers stand to lose everything gained in overturning Roe
• 04/02/24: PBS Misremembers William F. Buckley Jr.
• 04/02/24: Who Wants to Be House Speaker?
• 03/26/24: Trump Hunts for a VP Close to Home
• 03/19/24: Princess Kate and Democracy's Discontents
• 03/12/24: Can Biden Buy the Voters?
• 03/05/24: Veepstakes Give Trump an Edge
• 02/20/24: Do Americans Trust Either Party?
• 02/13/24: Vladimir Putin -- A Passive Aggressor
• 01/23/24: Will 'Lawfare' Take Trump Off the Ballot?
• 01/16/24: Will Africa Save America?
• 01/09/24:'The Sopranos' at 25: A new world tragedy
• 01/02/24: Trump, Biden and a Fight for the Heart
• 12/12/23: What Happened to Ron DeSantis?
• 12/12/23: Biden Looks Doomed -- But Is He?
• 12/05/23: A Test for Trump and His Rivals
• 11/21/23: When Inequality Is Fatal for Men
• 11/14/23: Nevermind, The Battle's Over
• 11/07/23: War in the Dem Party -- and at the Opera
• 10/24/23: Israel's Lesson for 2024: A Lib Crackup
• 10/17/23: Libs' Dilemma: Immigration or Israel?
• 10/10/23: Why Bidenflation Defines Bidenomics
• 10/03/23: Will Gavin Newsom Copy Trump?
• 09/26/23: Biden's a Loser -- but Dems Can't Ditch Him
• 09/19/23: Do Sex Scandals Matter?
• 09/12/23: Cornel West Spells Doom for Biden
• 09/05/23: What Trump Does for Democracy
• 08/2/23: Ramaswamy: A Trump Versus Trump?
• 08/22/23: Take 'Rich Men North of Richmond' Seriously
• 08/16/23: How America Kills Its Own
• 08/08/23: The Biden Pardon That Can Spare America
• 08/01/23: Harding, a consevative for the ages
• 07/25/23: Demography Destiny, for Us and China
• 07/18/23: The Frontrunner Who Looks Like a Loser Is Biden
• 07/11/23: Britain's Bad Example for American Conservatives
• 07/05/23: Could We Still Win a Revolutionary War?
• 06/27/23: Civilizations Clash -- in Ukraine and at Home
• 06/20/23: China Comes for the Caribbean
• 06/13/23: Fertility, Family and Bio-Socialism
• 06/06/23: From American Dream to Orwell's Nightmare
• 05/23/23: Ukraine war is an existential struggle --- for the West
• 05/23/23: Learn the Right Midterm Lessons -- or Lose in 2024
• 05/16/23: Feinstein Today Is Biden Tomorrow
• 05/09/23: Trump, DeSantis and Political Courtship
• 05/02/23: RFK Jr.'s Threat to Biden
• 04/25/23: Biden's Lost Generation
• 04/25/23: Who's In Charge of Clarence Thomas?
• 04/11/23: Beyond AI, Our Cyborg Future
• 04/04/23: 2024: 3 Leaders, 1 Way to Win
• 03/28/23: Climate Science Makes a Bad Religion
• 03/21/23: All the Conspiracy That's Fit to Print