By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN
(CNN) — Airports across the country are bracing for another crush of weekend travelers as they anxiously wait to see whether Congress will reach a deal to end the partial government shutdown that has driven mounting TSA officer shortages and resulted in the longest security wait times the agency has ever seen.
There has been no significant progress on a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, and lawmakers are set to leave for a two-week recess Friday.
Without a funding solution, overwhelmed airports will go into the weekend – typically some of the busiest travel days – with spring break travel in full swing and only a fraction of their security screening capabilities. TSA workers have been quitting or calling out of work in droves after going six weeks without pay. And it is unclear whether the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deployed to airports this week to help manage the chaos have made a significant dent.
Though Senate GOP leaders earlier this week believed they may have found a middle ground that would open DHS by the weekend, the plan has seemingly sputtered out. A new push for a deal is underway, but airport officials have warned of dire fallout if the crisis continues.
“We worry conditions will only get worse at airports across the US until Congress ends this shutdown,” Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System, said in a recorded statement Wednesday.
Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport has seen some of the most severe impacts, along with travel hubs in New York and Atlanta.
Scrambling to address traveler frustrations, airports have redirected employees from other departments, alerted travelers to arrive hours earlier than planned and brought in outside security personnel.
Here is how airports and officials are trying to address travel disruptions.
A surge of spring breakers
The middle of the week, typically the slowest time for air travel, offered some reprieve. By Wednesday, security wait times had returned to normal in several airports, with some exceptions.
George Bush Intercontinental Airport reported a two-hour wait Wednesday afternoon, down from more than four hours earlier in the week. Szczesniak said the airport is able to operate only about half of its 37 TSA checkpoints because of staff shortages.
“So that’s 100% spring break loads going through the airport being processed through less than 50% of our TSA lanes,” he said. “That is not sustainable.”
Nearly 40% of the Houston airport’s TSA officers called out of work on Tuesday, according to DHS. The airport has been forced to redirect employees from unrelated departments to handle crowds.
“We’ve reassigned hundreds of employees from across our organization, from finance to IT to maintenance and more, to help manage lines and assist travelers,” Szczesniak said.
Several airports have tried to mitigate long waits by asking flyers to arrive far ahead of typically recommended times.
Airports in New York and New Jersey are responding to the travel woes by bringing in civilian security and police officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the region’s major airports, the agency said. Still, those additional personnel are not able to operate security screening checkpoints and are only assisting with crowd control.
ICE increases its airport presence
In the four days since ICE agents arrived at 14 airports at President Donald Trump’s request, they have been seen directing snaking security lines and passing out water bottles to tired travelers.
ICE agents have also started verifying travelers’s IDs in some airports, TSA confirmed Wednesday. Agents were spotted training to check boarding passes and IDs at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
The ICE agents have also been guarding entrances and exits, helping with logistics and doing crowd control after “receiving standard TSA training curriculum,” TSA said.
It’s difficult to measure how the presence of ICE agents has directly impacted travelers. The White House press secretary said Wednesday they’ve been “yielding results.”
“Wait times have improved since ICE arrived, and they are doing everything in their power to help their fellow federal service members,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Many factors, including the number of travelers and available security checkpoints, impact wait times. ICE agents arrived at airports Monday during peak travel times. About 2.6 million people passed through TSA on Monday compared to 2.2 million on Tuesday, data from the agency shows.
ICE agents have not been seen performing security screening, which is one of the biggest sources of travel delays.
The agents are not trained to do specialized security screening tasks, such as operating X-ray machines, White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday. Instead, they are meant to take on simpler tasks, ideally freeing up more TSA employees to perform critical screening work. He suggested they would be monitoring exit doors and helping direct lines.
TSA agents near two full missed paychecks
While travelers may feel inconvenienced by the delays, many unpaid TSA workers have had their entire lives overturned. They have reported empty fridges, eviction notices and overdrawn bank accounts.
“Officers are reportedly sleeping in their cars at airports to save gas money, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second and third jobs to make ends meet, all while expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public,” TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said during a House Oversight hearing on Wednesday.
Tatiana Finlay, a TSA union member, told CNN, “At this point, it has come to the point of, like, having to skip meals because I have to make sure that my kids are fed.”
Many TSA employees live paycheck to paycheck, making an average of $35,000 a year, according to the American Federation of Government Employees union. If Congress cannot reach a deal by Friday, workers will miss a second full paycheck.
More than 480 TSA officers have quit since the partial shutdown began and more than 3,000 called out on Tuesday, according to DHS. Some people who do want to come to work are struggling to get there.
“Just yesterday, I watched an officer receive a gas card from one of our partners,” said Szczesniak, of the Houston Airport System. “They had tears in their eyes knowing that they could fill up their tank to get home and come back to work to help keep these lines moving.”
Airport officials are providing meals to TSA workers as well as collaborating with the Houston Food Bank and other nonprofits, he said Wednesday.
TSA union workers have said the assistance of ICE agents – who are getting a paycheck – is far from a solution. Finlay called it “unacceptable.”
“That’s like giving a person dying of pneumonia a teaspoon of cough syrup,” said Everett Kelly, the AFGE’s national president. “It doesn’t address the problem and it’s not gonna work.”
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
After slight midweek relief, major US airports brace for another rush of weekend travelers News Channel 3-12.
Hence then, the article about after slight midweek relief major us airports brace for another rush of weekend travelers was published today ( ) and is available on News channel ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( After slight midweek relief, major US airports brace for another rush of weekend travelers )
Also on site :
- Go Inside BTS ‘Tonight Show’ Taping, From Fan Jump-Scares to Jimmy Fallon Angling to Be ‘The 8th Member’
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy Has Many Elements That Are Difficult to Watch in the Modern Day
- Trump& 039;s Disapproval Rating Hits All-Time High, Fox News Poll Shows