During a partial U.S. government shutdown that affects the Department of Homeland Security, airport security lines lengthened sharply at some locations as spring break travel ramped up and screening work continued without pay for many Transportation Security Administration officers.
The Associated Press reported that the longest waits were at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport, where lines were consistently lasting over three hours for much of Sunday and Monday. The report said passengers at other airports, including in New Orleans and Atlanta, also faced delays, with waits reported at more than an hour to clear security.
The pressure on airport systems could rise further as millions of travelers move for spring breaks, a surge that would stress even fully staffed operations. With staffing problems that often accompany a shutdown, some airports appeared to feel added strain, the report said, while most airports had not experienced significantly long security lines.
Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the Transportation Security Administration union’s bargaining unit and a TSA agent, said workers would miss their first full paychecks this weekend after the shutdown began Feb. 14. He told the Associated Press that morale among the workforce “has taken a severe hit,” and said TSA officers had already gone through three government shutdowns over the previous 15 months.
Jones also described personal financial effects from prior shutdowns and said it took months for him to recover after a 43-day shutdown last fall. He said in a separate comment to the Associated Press, “I refilled my water buckets and now I’m starting to empty them again,” adding that some people were not able to refill as he did.
The shutdown’s scope remains limited to the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats in Congress have refused to fund the department, according to the report, saying they object to DHS immigration enforcement tactics and arguing DHS would not receive funding unless new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations following fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year.
The TSA and Homeland Security have blamed Democrats for the long airport lines, the AP report said. Lauren Bis, deputy assistant secretary for public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that “This chaos is a direct result of Democrats and their refusal to fund DHS,” and she added that these “political stunts” are forcing TSA officers to work without pay, leading to “financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.”
Airlines for America, a trade group representing major airlines, also pressed Congress to end the shutdown. Chris Sununu, the group’s president and CEO, reiterated that call in a written statement Monday, saying “It’s unacceptable to have wait times of 2 or 3 hours” and adding that it was unacceptable “that TSA officers will have $0 in their paychecks this week.” He also said more than 2.7 million people cleared through TSA on Sunday.
But Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee rejected the blame. A Homeland Democrats group posted on X that “FACTS: Democrats introduced a clean bill to fully fund TSA with no conditions. Republicans blocked it,” adding that Republicans “would rather disrupt our travel than rein in ICE.”
The report said some of the longest lines appeared to ease by Monday afternoon. It said waits at Hobby Airport were still around two hours for security, and airport officials were urging travelers to arrive at least three or four hours ahead of flights. In New Orleans, the report said the late-afternoon wait time was about 10 minutes, after video from Sunday showed the line stretching across a parking garage.
Even so, officials cautioned that problems could recur during busy periods if a security shift runs short on screeners. The AP report said it did not get responses from the Houston airport authority or TSA when it asked why Hobby has been prone to longer delays during the shutdown. It also noted that Hobby is smaller than George Bush Intercontinental Airport, which handles roughly three-quarters of Houston-area passengers, while Hobby still handled nearly 15 million passengers in 2024.