Travelers are waiting in 270-minute-long queues at America’s busiest airports after nearly half the Transportation Security Administration officers called off work.
Wait times have reached nearly five hours at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas after 42 percent of TSA staff called out Tuesday.
Security queues snaked around the Houston airport and through an underground tunnel as staff warned travelers whose flights were departing ‘soon’ that they ‘may not clear security in time,’ CNN reported.
Nearly 50 percent of staff at Houston’s Hobby Airport called off Monday, but chaos has since calmed at the Southwest hub with security wait times currently estimated at being 10 minutes or less.
Staffing shortages are plaguing airports across the US after hundreds of thousands of Homeland Security workers – including those from the TSA – have continued to work without pay since Congress failed to renew DHS funding last month.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has advised travelers to allow ‘at least four hours or more’ for security screenings for both domestic and international flights but were unable to offer an exact TSA wait time on Tuesday morning.
ICE agents descended on Hartsfield-Jackson, which is the busiest and biggest airport in the US, to assist with security screenings after TSA callouts exceeded 40 percent Tuesday morning, according to WRDW.
Wait times at New York City‘s John F. Kennedy International Airport reached nearly an hour Tuesday morning, with the airport citing the ‘federal funding lapse’ as the reason that ‘security wait times may be significantly longer than normal.’
Wait times have reached nearly five hours at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas after 42 percent of TSA staff called out Tuesday
A large crowd of travelers amasses in the center of Terminal 1 of at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday due to long wait times amid TSA worker callouts
Travelers stand in long lines at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Monday
More than 400 TSA officers have quit their jobs amid the partial government shutdown, which has required around 61,000 TSA employees to work without pay since January 31.
Nearly 12 percent of TSA officers nationwide called off work on Sunday – the highest rate since the shutdown began last month.
President Donald Trump took the extraordinary step over the weekend of ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to provide security at 14 airports, including those hardest hit by TSA staffing shortages.
The Trump administration said the federal agents would supplement TSA staffing at certain airports but provided few details about exactly what the federal agents would be doing.
Armed ICE officers and other federal agents were seen patrolling terminals and lingering near long lines of passengers at airports in Atlanta, NYC, Newark, Houston and New Orleans on Monday.
A handful of other airports – including Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International – have also confirmed ICE will be on-site.
Federal law enforcement officers are a routine presence at international airports.
Travelers stand by a sign indicating long wait times as they progress through the TSA security checkpoint line in Terminal A at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Monday
Travelers stand in line as some flights are delayed at Houston Hobby Airport on Monday. Officials say that 46 percent of Hobby Airport’s TSA workers called out on Tuesday, but wait times still remain manageable
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents monitor air passengers waiting in long TSA security lines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday
Customs and Border Protection officers screen arriving passengers, and Homeland Security Investigations agents conduct criminal inquiries tied to cross-border activity.
But immigration agents are rarely visible at TSA checkpoints, the front line of domestic air travel.
Although routine funding used to pay TSA agents lapsed, ICE and other immigration enforcement personnel are still receiving paychecks amid the shutdown – a result of Trump’s big tax cuts bill that became law last year.
Senators are discussing a proposal to end the Homeland Security budget stalemate by funding much of the department, including TSA workers, but excluding ICE’s enforcement and removal operations that have been core to the dispute.
The potential breakthrough came after a group of Republican senators headed to the White House late Monday to meet with Trump.
Negotiators reportedly worked through the night hammering out the details and are expected to present written proposals for both parties to discuss Tuesday at their weekly caucus lunches.
The contours of the deal under consideration would fund most of Homeland Security, but exclude funding for one main part of ICE.
Security lines snaked outside at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Sunday
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrol Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport in New York City on Monday
Under the package being floated, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations would be funded as well as CBP, but with new guardrails to position officers from those divisions in their traditional roles, rather than as they have been used more recently in immigration roundups in cities.
It would also include a number of changes in immigration operations that Democrats have demanded, including mandating that officers wear body cameras and identification.
Since so much of ICE is already funded through Trump’s big tax breaks bill, and immigration officers are still receiving paychecks during the partial government shutdown, senators said the new restraints would also be imposed on operations that rely on that funding source.
