GOP Sen. John Kennedy Says He Came Up With Plan To End DHS Shutdown But Trump Took It Down: 'No Deals With Democrats'

Republican Senator John Kennedy said he and colleague Ted Cruz came up with a plan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, but President Donald Trump rejected it as part of a broad refusal to reach deals with Democrats.

Speaking to Fox News, Kennedy explained that the plan had two steps: accepting Democrats' offer to reopen all of DHS but ICE and then fund the latter agency through reconciliation, where the GOP wouldn't have needed votes from Democrats.

"It would have worked. We could have had TSA paid by the end of the week," Kennedy said, noting that Trump ordered party lawmakers to refrain from reaching deals with Democrats.

The impasse comes as almost 12% of all TSA workers did not show up for work on Sunday, according to Reuters. More than 400 employees have quit since the shutdown began over a month ago.

In the meantime, the Trump administration has deployed ICE agents to airports to help manage crowd control. Agents were deployed Monday to more than a dozen airports, including Chicago, Houston, New York and Philadelphia. Officials said their role would focus on support tasks such as managing exits rather than conducting immigration enforcement.

Trump said on Monday that agents should not wear masks while assisting with security operations, arguing the setting does not require the same precautions as enforcement actions.

"I've requested now... that they take off the masks," Trump told reporters before departing Florida. "I don't like it for the airport." He added that while masks may be appropriate when targeting "murderers" and "criminals," "the people coming into the airport, typically speaking, aren't murderers, killers, drug dealers."

The use of masks by federal immigration agents has become a national point of contention in recent months. Democratic lawmakers have pushed for limits on the practice, arguing it reduces accountability during public-facing operations. Their demands intensified after two fatal shootings involving immigration agents in Minnesota earlier this year, which drew scrutiny from lawmakers and civil rights advocates.

As part of negotiations to reopen DHS, Democrats have proposed banning masks in most public operations, along with other changes to enforcement practices. Republicans and the White House have resisted those conditions, contributing to the ongoing stalemate.