George Randall got to George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Monday, three hours before his flight to California was scheduled to take off. He anticipated a long wait in security due to a shortage in TSA agents who haven’t been showing up to work because they haven’t been paid since mid-February.
But knowing ahead of time that the airport experience is going to be a nightmare doesn’t make it any more enjoyable, Randall said.
“What’s troubling for me is that there’s a swarm of federal agents walking around this airport,” he said. “They’re not really doing anything but telling people where the TSA line starts. Makes you wonder if they’re just here to intimidate us.”
Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been at a standoff over funding for the Department of Homeland Security for more than a month. DHS funds TSA, and representatives on both sides of the aisle appear to want to get airports back up to full functionality, but DHS also funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and that’s a problem for the Dems.
President Donald Trump’s answer to the airport crisis, which was exacerbated earlier this month by millions of spring break travelers who weren’t anticipating the three-hour delays just to get through a security checkpoint, was to send ICE officers to American airports.
Fourteen airports in Houston, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans and Phoenix can expect to see ICE agents “conducting tasks to free up TSA agents to handle processing travelers,” according to the New York Times. On Trump’s Truth Social, the President posted that ICE agents would “do security like no one has ever seen before,” including “the immediate arrest of all illegal immigrants who have come into our country.”
At least a dozen unmasked ICE agents were at IAH on Monday, mostly talking to each other and directing passengers to the TSA security line, which started downstairs near the baggage claim. Their presence didn’t exactly look like the cavalry swooping in to save TSA; one agent spent half an hour outside near the shuttle dropoff taking his dog for a potty break.
The federal officers said they were not authorized to speak to the media. It was unclear how long they’d be stationed at the Houston airports. While much of the media attention focused on the presence at IAH, an Uber driver said Monday she’d also seen federal agents at Hobby early Monday morning.
At IAH on Monday, CLEAR — a pre-paid fingerprint scan that allows travelers to skip the traditional check-in line — was not operating and TSA pre-check was available in Terminals A and C only until 10:30 a.m. Terminal D is closed. Travelers with questions about their flights were encouraged to contact the airline.
Richie arrived at IAH two hours early for a 7:35 a.m. flight to Fort Lauderdale. He missed it, saying that an airport employee approached him in the line shortly after 6 a.m. and said, “I’m not even going to take your bags because you’re not going to make it through TSA in time.”
“They told us they didn’t have enough TSA workers to check our bags in time for us to leave,” said Richie, who was traveling with his friend Bob on what was meant to be a quick weekend trip to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Three young women who spent their spring break last week in Houston arrived at IAH at 6 a.m. for an 8:24 a.m. Frontier flight to Orlando, and say they were told something similar. The group of girls had never met Richie and Bob before but commiserated together at the airport’s Subway sandwich shop on Monday morning, trying to figure out how they were going to deal with missed work and paying for a hotel.
The airlines were helpful in rescheduling the missed flights, all parties said, but no one’s going to cover their hotel rooms or lost wages. “It’s been like this for two weeks, right?” a girl named Rose asked. “Is it just because of spring break?”
None of the spring break travelers were aware of the partial government shutdown or that there were ICE agents in the airport. “Oh, the ones in the brown and green [vests]?” they asked. When told that the TSA agents weren’t getting paid, Richie said, “We gotta be extra nice to the ones who are here because they’re showing up for free. If you’ve got bills to pay and you go months without getting paid, you’ve got to figure out a side hustle.”
The shutdown started on February 14 but the airport delays spiked in early March after TSA agents missed their first full paycheck. A man named Umar told the Houston Press his family came to Houston for the World Baseball Classic earlier this month. Their return flight on a Sunday night was canceled and they weren’t able to leave until the following Tuesday.
Reuters reported Friday that FAA data show smaller Texas airports could close permanently if the shutdown doesn’t end soon. Houston’s Hobby Airport is already experiencing long lines and checkpoint closures, but the potentially vulnerable airports — in Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Laredo, Killeen, College Station, Waco and Tyler — either have just one TSA checkpoint or rely heavily on consistent demand and airline service to stay viable.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last week he believed “you’re going to see small airports shut down.”
No one knows when the partial shutdown will end, but it’s apparent that there’s frustration from both political parties. House Democrats on March 18 announced a “discharge petition,” a legislative tool that allows a majority of members to force a bill to the floor for a vote, even if the Speaker of the House opposes it. The measure would fund all of DHS except for ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
“The effort comes as Democrats continue to demand reforms to ICE and CBP as federal agents have arrested and killed U.S. citizens, entered homes without judicial warrants, and used excessive force against people across the country,” U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, said in a press release. “Republicans have refused to consider these reforms, leaving DHS unfunded and forcing federal employees to work without pay while using funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to continue paying tens of thousands of law enforcement personnel at ICE and CBP to carry out the President’s mass-deportation agenda.”
If Republicans are serious about “supporting civil servants rather than using them as bargaining chips,” they’ll sign the petition and vote to fund departments like TSA, Fletcher added.
Republicans, including Trump, have said they won’t pass any funding bill until Democrats approve a bill that requires people registering to vote to show proof of U.S. citizenship.
The National Republican Congressional Committee launched a paid advertising campaign at IAH and San Antonio International Airport, “targeting Democrats or shutting down the Department of Homeland Security and forcing TSA agents to work without pay while Americans endure hours-long security lines.”
“House Democrats shut down homeland security while TSA agents work for free and Americans sit in hours-long security lines. It’s pure insanity, and voters won’t forget who betrayed them,” said NRCC spokesman Christian Martinez.
A spokesperson for Houston Airports referred questions about ICE to DHS but said that the city-owned airport system is working closely with TSA to monitor checkpoint capacity in real time, adjust passenger flow and provide on-site customer service support. The Houston Food Bank and the nonprofit Wings of Compassion are helping provide meals and other assistance to the TSA agents who are working for free.