Government dysfunction is leading to long lines at airports due to the shortage of TSA staff.
The wait times at airports have never been higher in history. Along with long lines, immigration agents have been patrolling terminals. However, with the frequent ID checks, they are merely prolonging lines and causing discomfort among passengers, according to some.
The government shutdown began on Jan. 31, 2026 as a result of Congress not passing all the required laws to fund federal agencies. One of the agencies was TSA; for months they had been working without pay, so many called in sick or quit, which led to the long lines in airports and frequent flight delays. On March 27, President Trump signed an executive order to resume pay for TSA, which went into effect on March 30.
But according to CNBC’s airline tracker, as of March 31, the lines at the airport haven’t shown much sign of shortening.
Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, said that “nothing will be truly normal again.”
Avery Smith, a senior in Rye, N.Y., traveled through JFK airport over break.
“We got to the airport at two a.m. and it took us seven hours to get to our flight,” she said. She also explained that she was supposed to leave at six a.m., but her flight got delayed because there wasn’t enough staff for it.
Avery was traveling to the Bahamas for spring break.
Phoebe Maddock, a freshman at Williston, traveled to Australia for her spring break. Phoebe reported that her flight to Sydney got delayed, so, “Instead of going out of Hartford we had to drive to JFK, and the lines were extremely long.” She also noticed that, “When we went through customs on the way back to the U.S., there was a significantly larger line for non-US citizens vs. American citizens.”
Travel and Tour World magazine announced that after Trump’s order to pay TSA airlines such as United, JetBlue, Delta, Southwest and American Airlines passengers were stuck at airports like JFK and Chicago O’Hare waiting in lines at least four hours long. The paper writes, “despite the executive order, airlines are still grappling with delays, missed connection flights, staffing shortages, and cancelations.”
On April 1, CNN announced that Trump and the Senate have reached a deal and have proposed a bill. However, the next morning, the Senate and the House of Representatives couldn’t agree on the bill, so they’re taking a short recess and will continue to attempt a compromise on April 13. NBC news reveals this is now the longest shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security in history.
According to the New York Times, ICE agents were originally placed in airports to assist with staffing shortages. However, even with the resumed pay of TSA, ICE are still in some airports, and there is controversy on whether they should remain.
As of April 2, there is no plan to remove ICE from airports. According to the New York Times, an anonymous government worker told the reporter, “They will stay for as long as they’re needed.”
As of now, it seems as if the debate has paused, at least until April 13.
The Times reports that some people worry that the order to pay TSA workers might not be a lasting solution while the DHS is still shutdown.
On the other hand, Christine Chung, a writer for the Times, claims that the lines in airports are shortening. Instead of the hours-long lines people have been experiencing, she states they’ve shrunk to around 40 minutes on average.
“However,” Chung says, “With no guarantee about future paychecks, and the partial government shutdown unresolved, the long lines could return.”
As of April 2, according to the Seattle and Miami airports official websites, their wait times have been around 30-45 minutes on average in the past two days.
Also on April 2, CBS news announced that multiple airports have to keep some terminals closed due to staffing shortages. For example, in Philadelphia International Airport terminal A west and terminal F checkpoints remain closed and show no signs of reopening soon. But just this morning (April 6), terminal C reopened in Philadelphia after three weeks of being closed.
Fox News displayed a video clip on April 2 of passengers at LaGuardia airport trying to get through long lines at the TSA checkpoint.
But long lines aren’t only annoying, they also cause anxiety and come at steep financial cost.
Isabelle Nguyen, a freshman at Williston, faced a three-hour delay to fly to New York City from Hong Kong International Airport. At first, she had a 30-minute delay at the airport, then a two-hour delay while on the plane.
“I was pretty horrified,” she said. She explained that the airplanes didn’t have Wi-Fi so she had no way of contacting anyone that her landing time had changed.
Sue Michalski, a French teacher at Williston, is going to Washington D.C. for the weekend.
“We would rather fly,” she explained, “but if there’s a four hour wait plus the flight, it’s just about the same as renting a car and driving.”
“I don’t love the idea of sitting in the car that long,” she added.
A similar situation happened to me when I was flying out of Bradley International Airport to Chicago O’Hare. My flight was set to leave around 3:00 p.m., but got delayed to 7:30 before I had left for the airport because an earlier flight impacted my plane’s arrival. Three hours later, I got another text saying my flight was now at 8:10 p.m.
Then another three hours later, a text came through informing us that the departure time was now 9:02 p.m. Finally, I got the last text stating that the departure time had moved up to 8:40 pm. By the time I boarded my flight, at least half of the seats were empty on what previously had been a full flight.
Maya Yang, a breaking news reporter who specializes in U,S, politics, social issues, and writes for The Guardian, interviewed a mother from Tennessee who relayed her complicated travel plans. She had to rebook her daughter’s flight multiple times so she could arrive at school.
“Last night, I rebooked her to fly out of Panama City to avoid TSA security lines in Atlanta. The lines at Panama City are reported to be much better,” she explained, “although we still plan to drop her off three hours early for a domestic flight, which is ridiculous.”
