Rank-and-file Democrats decline to meet with Trump on Day 25 of shutdown
Rank-and-file Democrats decline to meet with Trump on Day 25 of shutdown
It's Day 25 of the longest-ever government shutdown -- with no end in sight to the political standoff.
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President Donald Trump invited moderate, rank-and-file Democrats to the White House Tuesday for a working lunch but all declined to attend after leaders warned them about being used as props by the president. Some rank-and-file Republicans were attending.
Trump is standing by insistence Democrats agree to fund his proposed border wall before reopening the government. Democrats remain flatly opposed.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called the Democrats' move Tuesday unfortunate.
"Today, the President offered both Democrats and Republicans the chance to meet for lunch at the White House. Unfortunately, no Democrats will attend. The President looks forward to having a working lunch with House Republicans to solve the border crisis and reopen the government. It’s time for the Democrats to come to the table and make a deal,” Sanders said in a statement.
Some 800,000 federal workers are ensnared in the shutdown showdown and many missed their first paycheck on Friday. On Monday, another one-third missed a paycheck, the American Federation of Workers estimated, and on Tuesday, the last batch of federal workers missed theirs.
Here's a look at how different parts of the country are being affected.
Unpaid federal workers get help from food banks during government shutdown
Food banks around the country near military bases or in cities with a lot of federal government employees have been stepping up to help the furloughed or unpaid workers during the government shutdown.
Over the weekend in Washington, a local food bank said 2,200 furloughed federal employees received produce and other items at pop-up locations. In Dallas, a local church is handing out gift cards to furloughed employees.
This morning, 2,200 furloughed federal employees received produce & shelf-stable items at Free Grocery Distributions across the area. The CAFB will host these markets until the shutdown ends. Check our website for updates: https://t.co/GqVgunWVuE pic.twitter.com/mbHSVPaM81
— CapitalAreaFoodBank (@foodbankmetrodc) January 13, 2019
In cities like Tampa, Chicago, Rochester, Minnesota and Ogden, Utah, food banks are setting up pantries or expanding hours so federal employees can pick up groceries or even pet food.
Read more from ABC News' Stephanie Ebbs.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images, FILEImmigration court backlogs compound as shutdown enters fourth week
Dozens of immigration courts remain shuttered across the country this week and tens of thousands of hearings were canceled because of the ongoing government shutdown, a situation that is likely to add hundreds of cases to an already crushing backlog, according to analysts.
It's an ironic twist in Trump's desire to secure the U.S.-Mexico border by building a $5 billion wall and send people through established ports of entry.
The number of asylum and other immigration-related cases facing U.S. judges has skyrocketed in the past two decades, creating a backlog of more than 800,000 active cases before the shutdown began, according to data compiled by Syracuse University, based on Justice Department records.
Syracuse University estimated on Monday that nearly 43,000 immigration court hearings on a variety of matters, including evidence examination and basic scheduling, have been canceled. As many as 100,000 people could be impacted if the shutdown continues through the end of the month.
Aaron Reichlin Melnick, a policy analyst with the American Immigration Council, said that he estimates for every day the shutdown continues, another 500 immigration court cases that would have been completed are compounding the backlog.
Read more from ABC News' Quinn Owen.
TSA staffing shortages continue to hit nation's busiest airports amid government shutdown
Transportation Security Administration officials are closing more security lanes amid increased callouts from officers not being paid during the government shutdown.
The absence rate at TSA on Monday was 7.6 percent, up from 3.2 percent on the same day last year, according to TSA spokesperson Michael Bilello. Major airports in cities such as Atlanta and Houston "are exercising their contingency plans to uphold aviation security standards." That means condensing TSA officers into fewer checkpoints and screening lanes to uphold security standards at the cost of longer lines.
Queues at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport security extended more than an hour long on Monday morning, causing travelers to miss flights, according to ABC-affiliate WSB.
Natalie Behring/Getty Images
Airport screeners, air traffic controllers and many FAA inspectors and engineers did not get paid this week despite going to work.
Read more from ABC News' Jeffrey Cook.
ABC News' Stephanie Ebbs, Quinn Owen, Jeffrey Cook and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
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