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

President Trump is ordering the U.S. military to hold off on striking Iran's power plants for 5 days.

He's citing, quote, "productive talks" between both sides, but Iran says there's no such dialog.

I'm Michelle Martin. That's A. Martinez. And this is Up First from NPR News. Congress 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 agree 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. President Trump made a surprise announcement today about talks to end the war with Iran. We have had very, very strong talks.

We'll see where they lead.

We have points, major points of agreement. I would say almost all points of agreement. He also said he was ordering the U.S. military to hold off on attacking Iranian power plants. NPR's Daniel Estrin is covering the war from Tel Aviv. Daniel, so what do we know about these conversations President Trump says are going on between Iran and the U.S.?

Well, we should talk about the context first. President Trump had been warning that the U.S. would strike Iranian power plants if Iran didn't fully open the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, and he gave a 48-hour deadline on that. It was supposed to end tonight. Iranians were threatening to retaliate by attacking energy infrastructure in the Mideast. This has been a huge issue in the war, the Strait of Hormuz crisis. It has rattled the global oil and gas trade. It's been a major obstacle in Trump being able to end the war. And so now the president has issued this new statement. He said it first on social media that the US and Iran have had very good and productive conversations over the past 2 days, and he said that based on that, he's instructed the US military to hold off on on striking any Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for 5 days as talks continue throughout the week. Trump told CNBC, "We're very intent on making a deal with Iran." He told Fox News that these talks happened as recently as last night involving U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

All right, so he says that they were good and productive conversations. What has been Iran's response?

Well, Iran's foreign ministry denied that Iran is talking with the U.S. It said Iran is talking with regional countries. And indeed, Axios is reporting, according to an unnamed US source, that Egypt, Turkey, and Pakistan have all been passing messages between the US and Iran's foreign minister over the last 2 days about ending the war and resolving all outstanding issues. NPR has not independently confirmed that. It is the first indication we have that the US and Iran might be holding indirect talks about ending the war. And the question is, are these Talk serious, or is there something else here at play? Iran's foreign ministry is saying that the president's statements are part of efforts to reduce energy prices, and indeed we saw oil prices drop after Trump made this announcement today. Iran is alleging that Trump is just trying to gain time to carry out his military plans. We know that at the moment, U.S. Marines have been deployed to the region to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. There has been a lot of speculation that those Marines could capture Iranian territory to help secure secure the strait, and Iran said it would mine the Persian Gulf if any of its territory is invaded.

So considering that this is a joint US-Israeli war, how is Israel responding to news of negotiations with Iran?

Well, Israel's prime minister's office has not responded immediately. A person briefed on the matter, not authorized to speak publicly, told me that Israel did know about these talks happening behind the scenes. But Ending the war now would seem to go against what Israel wants to do, which is to keep attacking Iran and degrading its military capabilities. After Trump's public announcement, Netanyahu appeared in a video with a kind of a curious response. He says, we are working to take Israel to places it has never been and Iran to places it has never been. They are down.

We are up.

Today, Israel said it's attacking Iranian regime infrastructure in Tehran. There have been reports of power outages there.

All right, that's NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, thank you.

You're welcome.

Members 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 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. So funding expired, what, more than a month ago for DHS? What's holding up any deal?

Right. Good morning, Abe. 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?

Well, 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. For now, Thune could cancel a 2-week recess set to start 1 week from today if there's no deal in hand.

Yeah, and another thing, Claudia, 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 Markwayne Mullin 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 Mullin 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, and that's a big demand for Democrats, giving them hope of a breakthrough.

Also saw that President Trump demanded Republicans tie DHS funding to another bill this week, and he posted put 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 non-starter for Democrats. They say that would actually deter citizens from voting because of the new burden. Previously, 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.

New 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. 41 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 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. President 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 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.

All 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, you know, will likely stay away from the specialized airport security work.

I don't see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine because they'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, 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.

They 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. Biss 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, and 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. And 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, you know, 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. In 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.

And that's Up First for Monday, March 23rd. I'm Emi Martinez.

And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Hannah Bloch, Anna Yukhaninov, Mohamed Elbardisi, Alice Wolfley, and Olivia Hampton, and was produced by Ziad Butch, Eva Pukac, and Ana Perez. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zoe Vangenhoven, and our technical director is Carly Strange. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

Oh.