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Long lines reported at major U.S. airports as more TSA officers quit
President Donald Trump on March 25 said he could deploy National Guard troops to airports to address security needs.
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Reuters - Wed, 25, Mar 2026
- 14:32 EDT
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A federal agent patrols as people wait in line at New York's LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York. / REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Long lines were reported at major airports on March 25 as the Transportation Security Administration said the number of airport security officers quitting had jumped to more than 480 since the mid-February start of a partial government shutdown.
Ha McNeill, the senior official at the Transportation Security Administration, told a U.S. House committee that the dispute that has forced 50,000 TSA officers to work without pay was leading to major strains and the longest lines in the agency's history. She reiterated that the TSA could be forced to close smaller airports if staffing issues worsened.
Also Read: ICE agents deployed to more than a dozen US airports amid staffing gaps
President Donald Trump on March 25 said he could deploy National Guard troops to airports to address security needs.
Senate Republicans and Democrats continue to debate a proposal that would allow funding to resume for TSA and other Department of Homeland Security agencies.
McNeill noted that 1,110 TSA officers quit during the 2025 shutdown.
TSA is grappling with the school spring break travel surge and experiencing about 5 percent higher travel volume than last year. Absences have spiked to more than 10 percent in recent days, which has led to passengers waiting for more than four hours to get through security checkpoints at some airports.
McNeill said some TSA agents were "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."
McNeill expressed concern that if more TSA workers quit it may be hard to handle the major traffic expected during the upcoming soccer World Cup.
Democrats have held up funding for DHS while demanding a change in rules governing its immigration operations, after agents in Minneapolis shot and killed U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Republicans have rejected Democratic proposals to fund TSA while negotiating over reforms for how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents operate.
Hundreds of U.S. immigration agents and Homeland Security Investigations officers began deploying at 14 U.S. airports on Monday to aid security screening, including at some airports where wait times have topped three or four hours. DHS said on March 24, 11.1 percent of TSA officers nationally, or 3,160, did not show up for work.
ICE and other law enforcement personnel at DHS are getting paid during the shutdown.
On March 24, more than 30 percent of TSA workers were absent at airports in New York, Houston, Atlanta and New Orleans, DHS said.
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