As the Democrat-led shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security has now lasted for over a month, it has produced the Democrats’ desired effect — chaos and disruption. Americans have become increasingly frustrated by longer and longer security-line wait times as Transportation Security Administration employees struggle with staffing issues after going without pay.

Upwards of 400 TSA personnel have left the department since this current shutdown, and according to TSA Chief Ha Nguyen McNeill, over 1,500 personnel have quit over the two combined Democrat-caused government shutdowns.

Meanwhile, those TSA agents still on the job are seeing significantly higher rates of department personnel calling in sick, further straining the already shrinking workforce and creating long lines, missed flights, and flaring tempers for travelers.

For Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his fellow Democrats, the calculus has been to force Trump and Senate Republicans to accept their demands to severely limit Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ ability to carry out their duties. Indeed, the Democrats’ real agenda appears to be doing everything in their power to limit immigration enforcement, and if they had it their way, they’d see ICE eliminated entirely.

Why else would Democrat lawmakers repeatedly refer to ICE agents as the Gestapo, Nazis, and fascists? Apparently, these legitimate federal immigration law enforcement officers are “evil,” “dangerous,” and “lawless” because they dare to do their job — enforcing America’s immigration laws.

That framing of ICE may work when many Americans never actually have direct contact with these law enforcement officers. But thanks to President Donald Trump’s decision to send ICE agents to supplement TSA airport security screeners, hundreds of thousands of travelers are actually seeing and even interacting with ICE. And guess what? They are finding out that agents are not the fascist monsters the Democrats have been painting them out to be.

In fact, many travelers have welcomed ICE’s presence, as it has had a significant, positive impact on reducing long airport security check lines.

This despite warnings from the likes of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who ridiculously claimed, “The last thing that the American people need are for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports all across the country, potentially to brutalize or in some instances kill them.” Seriously? Talk about unhinged fearmongering.

Fortunately, those who would otherwise take Hakeem and the Democrat lawmakers spewing this anti-ICE bile seriously are learning otherwise. “I was concerned,” conceded one traveler passing through Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, “but they’re not bothering us, so let’s get it done.” Another traveler welcomed seeing ICE agents, saying, “I like that they’re here. It’s allowing us to move and get to where we need to go.” Still another said, “As long as they can help us move a little bit faster, maybe they can take some of the work off TSA agents. I’m all for it.”

Meanwhile, Border Czar Tom Homan explained that ICE agents will not only be helping out TSA personnel, but “we’re gonna arrest criminals going through the airport, we’re going to look for human trafficking, sex trafficking, money smuggling.” And he emphasized, “We’re not gonna give up President Trump’s promise of making this country safer.”

The more the everyday Americans see the Democrats’ false framing of ICE and its actions, the weaker will be the Democrats’ position to extract concessions from Republicans.

Furthermore, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and several Republican senators were singing a positive tune following their recent White House meeting with Trump. They appear to have developed a plan to secure DHS funding while also seeking to pass elements of the SAVE Act via reconciliation. This avoids any effort to eliminate the filibuster, which lacks sufficient Republican support anyway, while offering Republicans a path to get around the Democrat roadblock.

Republicans also see reconciliation as the path to get Trump the estimated $200 billion he’s seeking for the ongoing U.S. military’s Iran operation.

It will soon become evident whether Democrats decide to actually get back to looking out for the interests of Americans or whether they continue putting illegal aliens ahead of citizens.