Bringing the conversation to the spot where people are perhaps most affected by the federal government shutdown \u2013 the airport \u2013 Rep. Ilhan Omar and others, including a TSA worker, called on President Donald Trump to reopen the government and get people back to receiving paychecks that don\u2019t have $0.00 on the net income line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before boarding a flight to Washington D.C., Omar (DFL-MN) held a news conference at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport\u2019s Terminal 1 to urge Trump to reopen the government. The 20-minute press conference included workers hurt by the shutdown as well as a DACA recipient who said his immigration status should not be used as a chess piece to force Democrats to approve $5.7 billion to fund the construction of a wall along the nation\u2019s southern border \u2013 a wall seen by many as a racist endeavor to keep people of color from entering into the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDonald Trump, we reject your hatred and bigotry and we will not be used as pawns in your government shutdown,\u201d said Nestor Gomez Jim\u00e9nez, a DACA recipient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump reversed President Barack Obama\u2019s protections for DACA recipients but offered a three-year temporary protection in exchange for $5.7 billion to build his border wall. Omar called Trump\u2019s weekend proposal a non-starter and said Trump needs to act first before a meaningful conversation can be had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t negotiate immigration policies unless we open the government first,\u201d said Omar. \u201cThe president needs to open the government first, then we can talk more after that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Omar called the shutdown a \u201cmanufactured crisis\u201d but said a true crisis will occur if the government does not reopen soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are soon going to have a crisis when federal employees \u2013 those keeping us safe \u2013 decide they are no longer going to show up (to work) for free,\u201d said Omar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neal Gosman is directly affected by the month-long shutdown. Gosman is a 15-year TSA employee. He said the shutdown has caused angst for him and his co-workers \u2013 some who he said have dual incomes tied to the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is not right,\u201d said Gosman, who said he and others are relying on outside help such as food banks to simply eat. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t have to resort to this. As Federal workers we do an important job, and this is hurting us all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gosman said the traveling public has been supportive of TSA workers, many offering gift cards, but Gosman said federal law prohibits TSA workers from accepting cash and gifts. He said a food shelf has been set up in the terminal and travelers can donate to the shelf there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both the House and Senate passed a budget bill in December to fund the government and keep it open. The president initially said he would sign it, but following criticism from far-right conservatives such as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, Trump reversed himself and refused to sign the bill approved by Congress, in which both chambers were under Republican control at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bringing the conversation to the spot where people are perhaps most affected by the federal government shutdown \u2013 the airport \u2013 Rep. Ilhan Omar and others, including a TSA worker, called on President Donald Trump to reopen the government and get people back to receiving paychecks that don\u2019t have $0.00 on the net income line. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2450,67,2417,2451],"class_list":["post-3604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-daca","tag-donald-trump","tag-rep-ilhan-omar","tag-tsa","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3605,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604\/revisions\/3605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}