Several TSA agents have left the job as the stalemate over their pay continues. President Donald Trump has moved to end the slowdowns at airport check points by using ICE agents for airport security. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a lifelong farmer from Butler County, says that is not the duty ICE agents should have.
“And then you take those ICE agents away from enforcing the immigration laws, you lessen your chances of getting criminals that illegally entered the United States, getting them out of the United States,” Grassley says.
The Republican says Democrats are holding out on funding ICE because they want a ban on masks for ICE agents.
“The reason that you have face masks, if people want to wear them, is they get tired of their families, husbands and wives and children, getting threats against them,” Grassley says.
Grassley says if everyone in Congress went without pay like the TSA, the government shutdown would likely be over quickly.
“It would speed things up very dramatically, it really would,” he says.
Grassley says Congress has the two week Easter recess coming up, but they may stay in session if the budget issue isn’t resolved.
