More than 3,200 TSA workers called out from their Monday shifts, and over 450 officers have quit their jobs entirely as the government shutdown grinds through its 38th day, leaving travelers stranded in security lines stretching hours at some of the nation's busiest airports.
Houston led the country in callout rates, with Hobby Airport hitting 40.3% and George Bush Intercontinental at 36.1%. Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson, the world's busiest airport, saw a 37.4% callout rate and a reported high of nine hours for security delays. New Orleans wasn't far behind at 34.9%.
Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis laid the blame squarely on congressional Democrats and announced that President Trump is responding by deploying hundreds of ICE officers to the hardest-hit airports.
Sunday's nationwide TSA callout rate peaked at 11.6%, the highest of the entire shutdown. But the national average obscures how devastating the situation is at individual airports. Here are the top 10 major airport callout rates:
When four out of every ten TSA officers don't show up at a major airport, the system doesn't bend. It breaks. Travelers aren't dealing with mild inconvenience. They're missing flights, rearranging plans, and watching the federal government's inability to fund itself play out in real time on their boarding passes.
Bis told Fox News that the administration isn't waiting for Congress to sort itself out. In a statement shared with Fox News, she framed the situation in unmistakable terms:
Day 38 of the Democrats' shutdown: American travelers are facing hours-long waits at airports across the country and more than 450 TSA officers quit and thousands have called out sick from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent.
The response from the White House has been concrete. President Trump deployed hundreds of ICE officers, already funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted. Bis described the purpose plainly:
This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions.
A video circulated on social media showing ICE agents in Houston passing out water to travelers stuck in long security lines. By Tuesday, security lines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International were minimal, suggesting the deployments and the end of the first spring travel weekend helped ease the immediate crisis.
This is the second government shutdown this fiscal year. Let that sink in.
Democrats have turned the appropriations process into a weapon, and the casualties are TSA officers who can't afford gas or childcare and millions of Americans trying to get through an airport without losing a full day. Bis connected the dots directly, noting that Democrats "continue to put the safety, dependability, and ease of our air travel at risk" while the president takes operational steps to fix the problem.
The pattern is familiar. Democrats refuse to fund essential government operations, the consequences fall on working Americans, and then those same Democrats point to the resulting chaos as evidence that government needs to be bigger and better funded. It's an arsonist complaining about the fire department's response time.
Meanwhile, negotiations continue on Capitol Hill over a potential deal to fund DHS, though reports indicate the deal being weighed may leave out ICE funding. If Democrats are willing to fund the department responsible for airport security but strip funding from the agency currently backfilling TSA gaps at those very airports, the incoherence speaks for itself.
The Senate is weighing new paths forward to end the shutdown, but there's no indication Democrats are any closer to serious governing than they were on day one. The administration has shown it will act with the tools available. ICE officers are at the airports. The callout crisis, at least at its peak, appears to have receded from its worst levels.
But 450 officers didn't just call out sick. They quit. They walked away from federal employment because 38 days without a paycheck made the job untenable. Those positions don't refill overnight. The TSA was already stretched before the shutdown. Every officer lost is a security line that moves more slowly for months to come.
Democrats wanted a shutdown fight. American travelers are paying the fare.
