Day 22: Gov’t shutdown...
by Trump for the wall project has paralyzed Washington, with the president retaliating by refusing to sign off on budgets for swaths of government departments unrelated to the dispute.
As a result, workers as diverse as FBI agents, air traffic controllers and museum staff, did not receive paychecks Friday.
The partial shutdown of the government became the longest on record at midnight Friday (0500 GMT Saturday), when it overtook the 21-day stretch in 1995-1996, under president Bill Clinton.
Trump on Friday backed off a series of previous threats to end the deadlock by declaring a national emergency and attempting to secure the funds without congressional approval.
"I'm not going to do it so fast," he said at a White House meeting.
Trump described an emergency declaration as the "easy way out" and said Congress had to step up to the responsibility of approving the $5.7 billion.
"If they can't do it... I will declare a national emergency. I have the absolute right," he insisted.
Until now, Trump had suggested numerous times that he was getting closer to taking the controversial decision.
Only minutes earlier, powerful Republican ally Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted after talks with Trump: "Mr. President, Declare a national emergency NOW."
It was not clear what made Trump change course.
But Trump himself acknowledged in the White House meeting that an attempt to claim emergency powers would likely end up in legal battles going all the way to the Supreme Court.
Opponents say that a unilateral move by the president over the sensitive border issue would be constitutional overreach and set a dangerous precedent in similar controversies.
For Trump, who visited the Texas border with Mexico on Thursday, the border situation amounts to an invasion by criminals that can only be solved by more walls.
"We have a country that's under siege," he told the local officials in the White House.
Some studies show that illegal immigrants generally commit fewer crimes than people born in the United States, although not everyone agrees on this.
There's also little debate that border walls are needed: About a third of the frontier is already fenced off.
No paychecks
The government shutdown is wreaking havoc on many Americans: Hundreds of thousands of federal employees don't know when they'll see their next paycheck, and low-income people who rely on the federal safety net worry about whether they'll make ends meet should the stalemate in Washington carry on another month.
In Mami, the international airport has been forced to shut down one of its terminals early for three days due to a shortage of security agents sparked by the partial US shutdown.
From Saturday through Monday, Terminal G – one of six at the airport – will close at 1:00 p.m. (1800 GMT).
"Flights that were previously scheduled to depart from Concourse G this Saturday, Sunday and Monday will be relocated either to Concourse F or Concourse H," airport spokesman Greg Chin told AFP.
At issue is a lack of agents from the US Transportation Security Administration, who are seen as "essential" federal workers and hence are still on the job – but without pay until the shutdown ends.
Agents are reportedly staging "sickouts" – calling in sick in a silent protest at their situation. According to The Miami Herald, absenteeism among the Miami airport agents has more than doubled since the shutdownbegan.
"Right now, there's approximately some 40 employees that are calling in sick from TSA," meaning that "this terminal doesn't have the manpower to accommodate all the passengers," airport spokesman Jack Varela told AFP.
"The airport, the airlines, TSA, customs we are all doing everything possible to make the passengers happy," Varela said.
With the shutdown soon to drag into its fourth week, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association has reportedly filed a lawsuit against the administration of US President Donald Trump, alleging that members have been "unlawfully" deprived of their wages.