Security, immigration controls fraying

[struggle4progress]

Rick Jervis, Bart Jansen, Alan Gomez and Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
Published 7:35 a.m. ET Jan. 17, 2019 | Updated 7:57 a.m. ET Jan. 17, 2019

... In all, an estimated 800,000 federal employees from nine shuttered federal agencies, many charged with border and national security, have been furloughed or are working without pay. Lines at some airports lengthened as Transportation Security Administration agents failed to show for work. More than four in five Coast Guard employees stands watch without pay.

Nine in 10 of the 60,000 employees at Customs and Border Patrol must report to work, checking passports and manning the existing pieces of border wall. But they're not being paid. Immigration courts, as of Tuesday, had postponed more than 40,000 hearings, including many of the deportation cases Trump is trying to speed up.

... From the high seas and airport terminals to desert border crossings and immigration courtrooms, concerns about security and those responsible for maintaining it continued to mount.

Border security could snap, all at once, in a matter of weeks without a resolution, said Robert Pape, political science professor and director of the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats ...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/17/trump-wall-shutdown-immigration-controls-border-security/2581368002/

[struggle4progress]

1. Shutdown could cancel construction of breakwall in Hamburg NY

By: News 4 Staff
Posted: Jan 17, 2019 07:05 AM EST
Updated: Jan 17, 2019 07:08 AM EST

... The project has been in the works for quite some time.

Congressman Brian Higgins says the shutdown could pull those plans off the board. That's if President Trump declares a national emergency to fund his proposed wall at the southern U.S. border.

Business owners near the site say shutdown or not, the breakwall is essential.

"It's not only important for us as a business. But I think Canalside, Sabres games, anything that goes on down there. If this road is closed, even if it's just this little area, it's a huge deterrent for anyone who has plans," Hoak's Restaurant owner Aileen Lang says ...

https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/shutdown-could-delay-construction-of-breakwall-in-hamburg/1707479785

[struggle4progress]

2. Shutdown putting food assistance in peril for some needy Utah families

By Jasen Lee, KSL | Posted - Jan 17th, 2019 @ 6:47am

... Utah's Department of Workforce Services reported Wednesday that approximately 75,000 households in the state receive nutrition benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. As the longest shutdown in U.S. history continues with no end in sight, officials said recipients can expect to receive their benefits through next month, but they may face problems in March if the political battle isn't resolved.

"There is an opportunity to issue February funding early because of an expiring continuing resolution (in Congress)," explained Department of Workforce Services Eligibility Director Dale Ownby. In distributing the benefits ahead of time, he said the department hopes to give recipients time to stock up in case of a prolonged shutdown, but was quick to note that at this point no more funding will be available when March rolls around ...

https://www.ksl.com/article/46470114/shutdown-putting-food-assistance-in-peril-for-some-needy-utah-families

[struggle4progress]

3. Shutdown breaking government websites

By Brian Fung January 17 at 7:00 AM

As the government shutdown drags on, a rising number of federal websites are falling into disrepair — making it harder for Americans to access online services and needlessly undermining their faith in the Internet’s security, experts warn.

In the past week, the number of outdated Web security certificates held by U.S. government agencies has exploded from about 80 to more than 130, according to Netcraft, an Internet security firm based in Britain.

Various online pages run by the White House, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Archives and the Department of Agriculture appear to be affected by the latest round of expirations, Netcraft said ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/01/17/shutdown-is-steadily-devouring-us-government-websites/?utm_term=.cd65c55e67dc

[struggle4progress]

4. Federal prison employees working without pay discuss shutdown

By Theresa Schmidt | January 16, 2019 at 10:47 PM CST - Updated January 17 at 5:57 AM

OAKDALE, LA (KPLC) ...
While some federal employees are furloughed during the partial government shutdown, many at these facilities are considered essential and must work without pay ...

“We have at times held up to 4,000 inmates and we keep and average of 650 to 700 staff,” Brian Richmond, a correctional officer at the Federal Prison complex in Pollock said.

Richmond said that working without pay is not right.

“I am a federal law enforcement officer, and we have all worked throughout this and we are not getting paid and there is nothing American about that,” Richmond said ...

http://www.kplctv.com/2019/01/17/federal-prison-employees-working-without-pay-discuss-government-shutdown/

[MineralMan]

5. Malfeasance on the Part of President Trump.

Grounds for impeachment, it seems to me.

[struggle4progress]

6. Unpaid COs in Ohio face hardships

Today at 10:42 AM
Sabrina Eaton
Advance Ohio Media, Cleveland

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Working in a federal prison is hard enough without the added stress of not knowing when you’ll be paid.

Corrections officers at Northeast Ohio’s Elkton Federal Correctional Institution have worked their regular shifts for nearly a month without pay because of a border wall funding standoff between President Donald Trump and Congress that has shut down some parts of the federal government. Workers deemed critical to public safety - like federal prison and Transportation Security Administration employees are still on the job despite not getting paid, a situation that Elkton employee union president Joe Mayle likens to “modern day slavery.”

Because they’ve got no cash, Mayle says he and his wife are putting all their purchases on credit cards in hopes that the shutdown will end before their bills come due. If he misses another paycheck during the shutdown, he says they’ll have to call creditors to seek forbearance.

“There is not much we can do except call them and say, 'This is what is happening, can you please keep my lights on, can you still pick up my trash? '” says Mayle, of Kensington, who is among more than 6,000 Ohio workers affected by the shutdown ...

https://www.correctionsone.com/finance-and-budgets/articles/482091187-Unpaid-COs-in-Ohio-face-hardships-as-shutdown-drags-on/

[struggle4progress]

7. Shutdown means local correctional officers go unpaid

January 17th, 2019
by Karl Richter in Texarkan

Local effects of the federal government shutdown include correctional officers going unpaid and delays that could result in a later-than-expected start for the Hotel Grim renovation project.

As the shutdown approaches four weeks old, more than 200 Bureau of Prisons employees at Texarkana, Texas' Federal Correctional Institution are "feeling the pinch," said Robert Young, a spokesman for their union, Council of Prison Locals C-33, Local 2459.

The officers are required to work without pay, even logging unpaid overtime hours to cover for sick colleagues. The situation is beginning to take a toll.

"It varies how much savings can last. And also there are those who had circumstances before the shutdown happened, with sick family members, they themselves being sick. We have various veterans that have issues. Case in point, we have one individual where they just adopted a child and then his wife is having another child, and the financial burden is heavy for them. We have a staff member who was already dealing with a sick wife who had cancer, and he's the only one working. We have couples that work out there, so they're getting no checks," Young said ...

http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/texarkana/story/2019/jan/17/shutdown-means-local-jail-guards-go-unpaid-grim-project-more-left-hanging/761433/

[struggle4progress]

8. A choice between the economy and the wall

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 2:05 AM ET, Thu January 17, 2019

(CNN)If the government shutdown lasts much longer, President Donald Trump's only way out may involve a choice between two pillars of his political viability -- his border wall and his purring economy.

More and more Americans are feeling the effects of the partial shutdown every day, from travelers stuck in security lines to Coast Guard officers now joining the hundreds of thousands of federal employees going without pay.

Yet the normal political pressure points that usually end shutdown standoffs are not working, perhaps because of the unique dynamics of the Trump era. As a result, there's every chance that the stalemate now in its 27th day could drag on much longer.

Trump told supporters on Tuesday, for example, "We're going to stay out for a long time if we have to" ...

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/17/politics/donald-trump-shutdown-nancy-pelosi-economy/index.html

[struggle4progress]

9. Shutdown headache for stock market -- and could speed up next recession

Callum Burroughs

... "We're in unprecedented territory now, because we've never had a shutdown this long," said Ross Yarrow, a director of US equities at broker Robert W. Baird. "It's difficult to know if this is big in the market, because we don't know how the sheer amount of federal worker pay checks affect cash flow."

He continued: "We need to know how much of GDP will be deferred versus how much GDP will be destroyed. There could be a negative multiplier when you suddenly have 800,000 people with reduced purchasing power."

The shutdown is already causing a litany of economic concerns. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned it could lead to zero growth if it drags on. And analysts across Wall Street have been warning of the impact the shutdown could have on the economy and broader markets.

Economists and investors alike had been sounding the alarm on an economic recession through much of late last year, before the shutdown even started ...

https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-economic-impact-of-government-shutdown-rising-recession-odds-2019-1

[struggle4progress]

10. Losing support among core voting groups as the shutdown drags on: Polls

Kevin Breuninger
Published 51 Mins Ago Updated 45 Mins Ago

... new polls indicate that some of the groups thought to comprise key parts of Trump's base are not immune from the broader downward trend.

White evangelicals' support for Trump, for instance, plunged a net 13 percentage points, sinking to 66-23 percent approval from 73-17 percent in the December poll. Trump also lost support from non-college-educated white men, with his approval falling to 50 percent from 56 percent and his disapproval ticking up one percentage point to 35 percent.

Cracks even appeared in Trump's seemingly impenetrable facade of overall Republican support: 83 percent of Republican respondents said they support the president in the most recent poll — down 7 percentage points from the early December poll — while his disapproval in the party rose 3 percentage points.

... A CNN/SSRS poll published Sunday showed Trump's approval among white men without college degrees at 45 percent, which CNN says is the lowest-ever level of support for him from that group in its surveys. Political data site FiveThirtyEight's aggregated presidential popularity tracker shows Trump's approval gap, which has been underwater for most of his presidency, widening markedly since mid-December ...

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/17/trump-loses-support-among-core-voters-as-the-shutdown-drags-on-polls.html

[struggle4progress]

11. Shutdown could impact the Super Bowl, Georgia senator fears

by Rob Tornoe, Updated: January 17, 2019- 10:46 AM

One Republican senator is worried that Atlanta’s efforts to host the Super Bowl could be hampered by the ongoing partial government shutdown if the stalemate in Washington continues into next month.

“We’ve got a Super Bowl coming to Atlanta, Ga., in about three weeks. The biggest tourism event in the world this year," Sen. Johnny Isakson (R., Ga.) said on the Senate floor this week. “What if the largest airport in the world, that’s going to bring people to the largest football game in the world, goes out of business because the TSA strikes?” ...

http://www.philly.com/politics/government-shutdown-super-bowl-atlanta-airport-tsa-johnny-isakson-20190117.html

[struggle4progress]

12. Atlanta airport wait times longest in the country

Updated 11:51 AM; Posted 11:51 AM
By Leada Gore | [e-mail]

Wait times are down at the nation’s busiest airport but remain the longest in the country as the Transportation Security Administration continues to battle absenteeism among agents who aren’t being paid during the government shutdown.

According to TSA figures, the wait time yesterday at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was 39 minutes, down from 88 minutes the day before. Double-digit wait times were reported at almost every airport, including heavily traveled Seattle (29 minutes), Newark (27 minutes); and Reagan National in Washington, D.C. (24 minutes).

On Thursday, passengers were waiting up to 45 minutes in line to clear checkpoints. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting TSA brought in 20 officers from other cities to Atlanta to help staff checkpoints after passengers reported two hour waits earlier in the week ...

https://www.al.com/news/2019/01/government-shutdown-atlanta-airport-wait-times-longest-in-the-country-tsa-absences-continue.html

[struggle4progress]

13. North Carolina schools change lunch due to shutdown

By: Brandi Heath
Posted: Jan 17, 2019 09:58 AM EST
Updated: Jan 17, 2019 09:58 AM EST

... Vance County Schools officials announced on their Facebook page that starting Jan. 21, students will receive one main dish, bread, two vegetables, one fruit and milk. No fresh produce will be included, except at elementary schools as part of the Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program, which will be reduced to two days a week.

There will be no bottled water and juice after the current stock is consumed, and no ice cream will be available.


WRAL-TV in Raleigh reported system spokeswoman Terri Hedrick said in a statement the system uses federal money to operate its nutrition program, but federal reimbursement usually comes in 30 days after the meals are served. Hedrick said it's hoped the measure will ensure the system can provide students with meals.

https://www.wjbf.com/news/u-s-world-news/north-carolina-schools-change-lunch-due-to-shutdown/1707736320

[Hermit-The-Prog]

14. almost all of this is ignored by broadcast news