Mall threat could break US security funding logjam

WASHINGTON — The East Africa-based al-Shabab terror group's purported threat to attack the Mall of America will make it more difficult for congressional Republicans to continue their block on funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

The Republicans control both houses of Congress, and a bill passed in the House of Representatives would cover Homeland Security spending through Sept. 30 but overturn President Barack Obama's executive action to limit deportation for millions of immigrants in the United States illegally. Senate Democrats are preventing a vote on a similar measure. Funding for the department runs out Friday.

"It's absurd that we're even having this conversation about Congress's inability to fund Homeland Security in these challenging times," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Sunday on CNN.

The possible shutdown of the department threatens the Obama administration's efforts to counter the extremist appeal of the Islamic State group within the U.S. and to respond with emergency aid to communities struggling with winter snowstorms, Johnson warned.

The new threat from al-Shabab could make it difficult for Republicans to stand fast in their effort to link Homeland Security funding with their bid to overturn the president's actions on immigration.

Johnson said on the all of Sunday's political TV news programs that congressional failure to agree on a new budget for his department by next weekend would lead to staff furloughs that could hamstring U.S. response to terrorist threats and warnings, such as the one late Saturday that mentions the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

He said that as many as 30,000 department workers would have to be furloughed, including up to 80 percent of Federal Emergency Management Agency workers even as that agency contends with two months of devastating snowfall and cold across the U.S.

Despite the threat against the Mall of America, Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner indicated that House Republicans were not easing their demand on immigration.

"The House has acted to fund the Homeland Security Department," Smith said in an email on Sunday. "Now it's time for Senate Democrats to stop blocking legislation that would do the same."

It's not just Democrats in the Senate who are opposed to linking Homeland Security funding to Obama's action on immigration.

Two prominent Republican senators, Lindsey Graham — a potential 2016 presidential hopeful — and John McCain said on Sunday they would oppose such a linkage. Graham said he was "willing and ready to pass a DHS funding bill and let this play out in court."

Graham was referring to last week's ruling by a federal district court judge in Texas, who temporarily blocked the administration's plans to protect immigrant parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents from deportation. The decision came as part of a lawsuit filed by 26 Republican-controlled states claiming Obama had overstepping his constitutional authority in taking the executive action. Johnson said the administration will appeal the judge's ruling.

Even if funding ends, some 200,000 of the department's 230,000 employees would keep working to provide vital services such as airport security and border controls. They would receive no pay, however, until Congress authorizes funding. It's a reality that was on display during the 16-day Republican-forced government shutdown in 2013, when national parks and monuments closed but essential government functions kept running, albeit sometimes with reduced staff.

Johnson linked the purported Mall of America warning from al-Shabab, al-Qaida's affiliate in Somalia,, and other recent terror alerts to what he described as a "new phase" of challenges by extremist groups abroad that have used alarming Internet videos and social media to gain adherents in the U.S. and potentially prod some to action as so-called "lone wolves."

"This new phase is more complex, less centralized, more diffuse," Johnson said, adding: "It encourages independent actors who strike with very little notice."

Johnson said the U.S. and foreign allies have made progress in tracking thousands of Americans and Europeans who have streamed abroad to join IS and other militant groups inside Syria. But he said Western countries still need to build better systems to track individuals under suspicion of backing the Islamic State and other groups.