Airport security lines have become a nightmare across the United States, and the situation is showing no signs of letting up anytime soon.
More than 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers are currently working without pay after funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed on February 14, triggering a partial government shutdown that has now stretched past 35 days. TSA agents are classified as essential workers, meaning they are legally required to show up — even without a paycheck. Many are choosing not to.
The Numbers Are Ugly
The Department of Homeland Security reports that more than 300 TSA officers have resigned outright since the shutdown began. Callout rates have spiked to staggering levels at some of the country’s busiest airports — reaching as high as 55% at Houston’s Hobby Airport on a single day. In Atlanta, nearly one-third of officers called out. In New Orleans, the same.
The result? Lines stretching for hours. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport has advised travelers to arrive at least three hours before their flights. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta is saying the same. At LaGuardia in New York, even the TSA PreCheck lane — the fast lane reserved for pre-screened travelers — snaked all the way to the parking garage. At Philadelphia International, major checkpoints have been shut down entirely.
Travelers who managed to make it through described the experience in blunt terms. “Unreal. Longest TSA line I’ve been in — and I travel every week,” one traveler at LaGuardia told reporters. In Atlanta, a family who waited more than three hours still missed their 6 a.m. flight. “The big people aren’t paying the price for the little people,” the father said from an airport food court, his wife sitting nearby with her head down.
Officials Are Sounding the Alarm
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy did not mince words. He warned that the current chaos is “child’s play” compared to what will happen if TSA workers miss another paycheck. Acting TSA deputy officials have gone further — stating that if the shutdown continues, some airports may be forced to “quite literally shut down,” particularly smaller regional ones.
TSA leadership confirmed it has fully depleted its national deployment force — the reserve pool of agents it typically uses to reinforce understaffed airports. There is no backup plan left.
“We’re doing absolutely everything we can,” a TSA official said. “We have a national deployment office force, and we’ve fully depleted that. So, at this point, we’re fully stretched — and so frankly, there’s not much else we can do.”
All of this is hitting at the worst possible time: peak spring break travel season. Industry group Airlines for America projected a record 171 million passengers flying in March and April — roughly 2.8 million people per day.
The ICE Wildcard
With no deal in sight, President Trump escalated dramatically over the weekend. He announced that if a DHS funding agreement is not reached, he would deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to U.S. airports on Monday to handle security operations.
There is one major problem with that plan: ICE agents are not trained in airport security screening. TSA screeners undergo a several-months-long training process before they are cleared to work security checkpoints. What ICE agents can legally and practically do at airports remains unclear, though officials suggested limited roles like crowd control, line management, and directing passengers — tasks that would free up the few remaining TSA officers for actual screening.
What is clear is the broader implication. Trump indicated ICE agents at airports would also be tasked with arresting immigrants who are in the country illegally. The combination of airport chaos, undertrained security personnel, and immigration enforcement operations happening simultaneously in crowded terminals is a scenario critics are calling a recipe for disorder.
Elon Musk Offers to Pay TSA Workers
In a separate and legally uncertain development, Elon Musk took to X and publicly offered to personally cover the salaries of TSA personnel during the shutdown — which he said is “negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country.” It is unclear whether any legal pathway exists for a private citizen to pay federal government employee salaries. The Trump administration has not commented on Musk’s offer.
What Travelers Should Know Right Now
If you are flying in the coming days, there are a few things worth knowing. Twenty U.S. airports use private security contractors rather than TSA — and those airports are not experiencing staffing shortages. San Francisco International and Kansas City International are among them.
For everyone else: TSA’s own wait time tracker is not being reliably updated due to the shutdown. Check your specific airport’s website directly. Arrive at least three hours early at major hubs. If you have TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, make sure you are opted into biometric screening in your airline’s app — it can shave meaningful time even when lines are long.
The shutdown, the missed paychecks, the record travel volume, and now the prospect of ICE agents at security checkpoints — air travel in America is entering uncharted territory. The only certainty right now is that things will likely get worse before Congress acts.