Trump's Hormuz Deadline, Congress DHS Funding, ICE In Airports

0:02President Trump threatens to bomb Iran's power plants if it doesn't open the Strait of Hormuz. Iran says it'll close down the oil shipping lane and attack regional power plants if the president follows through. I'm Michelle Martin. That's A Martinez. And this is Up First from NPR News.

0:20Congress returns this week with a familiar mess on its hands. It's day 38 of a partial government shutdown that's left TSA agents unpaid and with long security lines at some airports. Now President Trump is telling Senate Republicans no DHS deal unless Democrats agreed to his voting reforms. And Trump's fix for the airport chaos, send in ICE. Starting today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be at airports across the country. What can they actually do to speed up those security lines? Stay with us. We'll give you all the news you need to start your day.

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1:41President Trump has threatened the U.S. will, quote, obliterate Iran's power plants if Iran does not let ships go through the Strait of Hormuz by this evening. Iran has countered with its powerful security forces saying they will close the strait indefinitely if the U.S. carries out the president's threat. With us is NPR's Emily Fang, who is at the Turkish border with Iran. Emily, the Strait of Hormuz has really become a really critical part of the war with Iran. Tell us exactly what Iran is threatening to do. Good morning, A. So Iran is letting through a handful of ships still that belong to countries it perceives as neutral.

2:12But then this weekend, a spokesperson for Iran's military operational command center said if the U.S. went ahead and destroyed Iran's power plants, the strait would totally close until Iran could rebuild those plants. Iran has also threatened to destroy more infrastructure that it sees as supporting U.S. and Israeli interests in the Middle East. That could include water desalination plants, which Gulf countries are very reliant on. And about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supply passes through the strait normally. And so energy prices are way up. Countries in Asia are already rationing jet fuel.

2:45And Egypt said it would implement a curfew starting next week to cut down on their energy use. Now, I know Iran also fired missiles over the weekend, including on Israel, and an attempt to hit a joint U.S.-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean. What do we know about those attacks? Right. So Iran's been firing waves of retaliatory drones and missiles towards its neighbors, including that missile launch you mentioned, which missed the Diego Garcia military base. but it was alarming because it showed Iran's missiles can travel farther than experts had expected. Another one of Iran's strikes hit southern Israel Saturday night near the country's nuclear research facility.

3:19That injured more than 200 people. And Israel said earlier today that it was launching more retaliatory attacks on Iran. Then in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and the UAE said they intercepted Iranian missiles and drones over the weekend. And in what appears to be a first, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps says they fired missiles with cluster warheads, that's their words, towards Arab countries and even showed a video of it. So the effects of this conflict are all over the region, including here where I am on the border with Iran, where you might be able to hear them. There are dozens of Iranians every hour crossing over, leaving their country while it's at war.

3:53But interestingly, some are going back in to see their families, despite knowing that the U.S. might bomb power plants soon. What are the Iranians that you're seeing and meeting saying about the war? So three people just now told us they're leaving Iran because they heard the U.S. might bomb plants. But one person also added, they said, I hope the U.S. hits their targets and bombs Iran, which might be hard for people to understand. A lot of people in Tehran said they've heard heavy bombing over the last few weeks in the city. One man said his family lived about 500 yards from one of Iran's largest hospitals and describes the fear of seeing a strike and hit the hospital and destroy it in early March and watching the survivors escape.

4:30And then a second man told us on record he left Iran just a few days ago and he told us this about the Ramadan holidays last week.

4:44So he says in Tehran, Iran's powerful security forces start giving out free food right next to these new checkpoints they've set up. than he believes. They are deliberately trying to put civilians in harm's way because these are checkpoints that Israel has been heavily bombing. What's really scary for people is not just the U.S. and Israeli strikes, but also the government-imposed internet blackout in Iran. People say they cannot receive warnings about where the next strikes will be, and in that complete absence of information is absolute fear. That's NPR's Emily Fang in Turkey's Van province, just a few yards away from the border with Iran.

5:16Emily, thank you for your reporting. Thanks, A.

5:27Members of Congress will face some difficult and familiar problems when they return to session this week. Both parties are struggling to strike a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security to help alleviate chaos at U.S. airports. And the first big hurdle is in the Senate. Here's Senate Majority Leader John Thune talking to reporters earlier this weekend. This is a pox on everybody's house. When you've got people standing in lines at airports, this needs to get fixed. It needs to get resolved. Senate Republicans need Democrats' help to get DHS funded again ahead of an upcoming recess. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales is here now.

6:01So funding expired, what, more than a month ago for DHS. What's holding up any deal? Right. Good morning, A. Both sides remain deeply entrenched since the agency largely ran out of funds February 14th. And as we know, Democrats are demanding significant reforms for immigration enforcement agents. They want agents to remove their masks, for example, a sticking point for the GOP. So this fight is keeping workers at several DHS components, including the Transportation Security Administration, from getting paychecks and resulting in those long airport lines we're seeing. Do the senators see any way out at this stage?

6:34Well, it depends who you ask. Thune and other Republicans say they've put offers on the table that Democrats should accept. Democrats argue Republicans should agree to fund all of the other DHS components like TSA because last year Republicans directed major appropriations to the agency's immigration side through a partisan bill. Here's Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. We will keep doing this and doing this until the Republicans see the light, feel the pressure that they are holding up payment and relent. We're also watching if any Senate Democrats break ranks, but it's not clear that happens in the near future.

7:07For now, Thune could cancel a two-week recess set to start one week from today if there's no deal in hand. And another thing I'd like to factor in is that the GOP-led Senate is also on track to vote for a new DHS secretary today. Right. Oklahoma Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen is on track for confirmation to the role tonight. So surprisingly, yesterday we saw two Senate Democrats join Republicans to move forward on this vote. That's a signal Mullen is seen as a much more reasonable negotiator than his predecessor, Christine Noem. He's already said he would look at allowing judicial warrants rather than administrative warrants in some cases.

7:43And that's a big demand for Democrats, giving them hope of a breakthrough. I also saw that President Trump demanded Republicans tie DHS funding to another bill this week. And he posted online telling Republicans not to end the shutdown until Democrats agree to pass his Save America Act, which includes major voting reforms. Tell us more about that one. Yes, Trump has made the stricter voter ID law the priority for Congress to handle. It would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. And that's a nonstarter for Democrats. They say that would actually deter citizens from voting because of the new burden.

8:15Previously, Trump threatened a legislative blockade to only sign DHS appropriations into law until the SAVE Act passed Congress. So this new threat is a reversal. It's probably throwing a wrench into bipartisan talks to fund DHS now. He's also pushed for this law to include a provision addressing gender in sports, but an amendment to do just that failed over the weekend. And it's clear Senate Republicans do not have the votes right now to pass the Save America Act bill yet. But Republicans want to keep the debate going. That's NPR's Claudia Grisales. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

8:55New York's LaGuardia Airport is shut down this morning after a plane crashed into a fire truck on a runway late last night. Pictures show the front of an Air Canada jet was ripped off in the crash. The pilot and co-pilot are dead, according to the Port Authority. Forty-one people were sent to the hospital. The crash was an isolated incident, but another blow to air travel, which is already a pain point for many travelers, due, as we've said, to the partial government shutdown, which has caused TSA agents to work without pay. Each day, more TSA agents quit or call in sick, resulting in long security lines that are causing serious delays at other airports around the United States.

9:33President Trump's solution? Send in immigration and customs enforcement agents to help. Starting today, he's sending hundreds of agents to airports across the country. NPR's Luke Garrett is on the story. Luke, what do we know about this deployment? Well, it all started with a post on social media. On Sunday, President Trump directed federal immigration agents to report to airports the next day. The goal, Trump says, is to help TSA officers who are facing staffing shortages. Trump turned to one of his favorite fixers, White House border czar Tom Homan, to lead the ICE deployments to U.S. airports.

10:04All right, so what's Homan saying about how this is all going to work? Well, Homan said he's still working on the final plan. What he said is that ICE agents will guard the exits and entry points at the nation's busiest airports. Notably, though, he told CNN these immigration agents will likely stay away from the specialized airport security work. I don't see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine because we're not trained in that. There are certain parts of security that TSA is doing that we can move them off those jobs and put them in the specialized jobs to help move those lines. But there was some confusion about the plan because Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told ABC News ICE could work those TSA security lines.

10:41They know how to pat people down. They know how to run the X-ray machines because they are, again, under Homeland Security. These mixed messages are raising a lot of questions over what exactly ICE agents will do at U.S. airports. DHS didn't give me many more details when I reached out to them. In a statement, spokeswoman Lauren Biss blamed Democrats for the airport delays. This also told NPR hundreds of ICE officers will be deployed to, quote, adversely impacted airports. Yeah. So ICE officers, why tap ICE agents for this? So one reason is money. Last summer, the GOP-controlled Congress passed billions in spending for ICE.

11:13And that money lets ICE keep the lights on and pay its agents. Meanwhile, the rest of DHS, which includes TSA, can't pay their workers during this partial shutdown. So Trump is basically shifting workers within DHS to solve this immediate problem of, you know, airport staff shortages. All right. So what are we hearing from Democrats then? So House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries threw the blame back at the White House and the GOP-controlled Congress. Here's Jeffries on CNN. The last thing that the American people need are for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports all across the country.

11:44And the White House is also facing some pushback from the union representing TSA workers. Here's the union's policy director, Jacqueline Simon. It will be easier for somebody with malintent to get through a security checkpoint with an untrained ICE agent there instead of a trained transportation security officer. Simon says the TSA workers just want to get paid for their work, and they're furious at the prospect that Congress might go on recess before making a deal on DHS. Luke, one more question. Will ICE continue their immigration work as they assist TSA? So Homan did address this very question.

12:18In short, yes, according to him. The border czar said ICE has done immigration enforcement at airports before, and this new deployment doesn't change that. But again, we're getting some mixed messages here. Atlanta's mayor, Andre Dickens, said in a statement that he believed ICE wouldn't conduct immigration enforcement at his city's airport. That's NPR's Luke Garrett. Luke, thanks a lot. You bet.

12:41And that's Up First for Monday, March 23rd. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Hannah Block, Anna Yukonanoff, Mohamed El-Bardisi and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zeyad Butch and Eva Pukac. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zoe Van Genhoven. Our technical director is Carly Strange. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

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