Trump orders paychecks for TSA workers as Congress stalls and airport chaos grinds on

US President Donald Trump signed an order directing his administration to pay airport security agents on Friday after a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stalled in Congress.

Although Trump ordered TSA agents to be paid, the move may be met with legal and political challenges.

The Senate reached a deal early Friday to end a partial 40-day US government shutdown, but the House rejected it. With Congress about to take a two-week break, funding for DHS, which includes TSA agents, seemed unlikely.

The lapse has had a knock-on effect on US air travel. Hundreds of airport security workers, who have been working without pay, have quit since the shutdown.

Democrats have refused to agree to a funding deal without reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but the Senate reached a unanimous agreement early Friday after stripping ICE and parts of border protection from the measure.

House Republicans have indicated they would not support legislation without funding for immigration enforcement and for voter ID requirements.

"Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement," Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said.

Johnson said he is instead considering a 60-day continuing resolution to fund all of DHS, including ICE, that would go into effect on May 22.

If such a resolution is passed, it would kick the issue back to the Senate, which has just begun a two-week recess.

But Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Friday that such a bill would be "dead on arrival".

"We've been clear from day one: Democrats will fund critical Homeland Security functions—but we will not give a blank check to Trump's lawless and deadly immigration militia without reforms," Schumer said in a statement on Friday.

It was hoped that the fresh package the Senate passed could bring an end to widespread disruption at airports across the US, where travellers have faced hours-long queues due to a shortage of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at security checkpoints.

Around 50,000 agents with the TSA - which sits under the DHS - have been working without pay since mid-February due to the shutdown. This has reduced the number turning up to work each day and led to hundreds quitting.

A BBC reporter at Houston airport reported on Thursday night that, after waiting about two hours in a winding queue across one floor, frazzled travellers went up an escalator thinking they had reached the end - only to find another long line stretching towards security.

Currently, only a third to 50% of its TSA checkpoints are operating, according to Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System.

A few hours before the Senate vote, US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would sign an executive order "to immediately pay out TSA Agents".

"Trump should never have had to step in to rescue TSA workers and US air travel," said the Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, addressing the chamber after the vote.

"We're here because, thanks to Democrats determined refusal to reach an agreement, there will be no Homeland Security funding bill this year," he said. "Instead... Republicans funded the Department of Homeland Security piecemeal. That is not the way to fund the department."

Schumer said the package included funding for the TSA, US Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

He told the chamber that "in the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Senate democrats were clear: no blank cheque for a lawless ICE and border patrol".

There has been mounting controversy over the actions of ICE agents, particularly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where US citizens Good and Pretti were shot by federal agents during operations there earlier this year.

Democrats want any deal on DHS funding to include measures like an end to ICE agents wearing masks, a ban on racial profiling and a requirement for judicial warrants to be issued before agents can enter private property.