Even after President Donald Trump ordered emergency pay for Transportation Security Administration agents to ease long security lines, major U.S. airports on Sunday were still urging travelers to arrive hours early — and federal immigration officers brought in to help may not be leaving anytime soon.
Trump's executive order on Friday instructed the Department of Homeland Security to pay TSA officers immediately, though it's unclear how quickly travelers will see an impact. The move comes during a busy travel stretch, with spring breaks underway and Passover and Easter approaching.
Tens of thousands of TSA employees have been working without pay since DHS funding lapsed on Valentine's Day. The department's shutdown reached 44 days on Sunday, eclipsing the record 43-day shutdown last fall that affected all of the federal government.
Trump deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to some airports a week ago to help with security as TSA callouts rose nationwide — the same officers who may now remain in place if TSA staffing strains continue.
When will ICE's deployment at airports end?
Making the rounds on Sunday morning news shows, White House border czar Tom Homan said it depends on how many TSA employees would be returning to work after they start receiving their pay.
“ICE is there to help our brothers and sisters in TSA. We’ll be there as long as they need us, until they get back to normal operations and feel like those airports are secure,” he told CBS' “Face the Nation.”
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Homan said it also depends on how many TSA agents “have actually quit and have no plan on coming back to work.” Nearly 500 TSA officers have left the agency since the shutdown started, according to DHS.
On Saturday night, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a post on X that more ICE agents were being deployed to Baltimore-Washington International Airport to assist at TSA security checkpoints to “speed up the clearance process for passengers — not immigration enforcement.”
When will TSA officers get paid?
Homan, in his CNN interview, said he hopes TSA officers will be paid by Monday or Tuesday.
“It’s good news because these TSA officers are struggling,” Homan said. “They can’t feed their families or pay their rent.”
Also on Sunday, Charlotte Douglas International Airport said in a post on X that backpay could arrive for TSA agents beginning Monday.
“While this action provides critical relief, CLT supports long-term solutions to ensure continued stability for this essential workforce,” the airport said.
Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees' TSA chapter, said Sunday that he has heard from workers worried they may not receive their full back pay because TSA management was given very short notice to begin processing payments. He also said TSA agents are concerned they could miss pay for time they were unable to work because they couldn't afford to report for duty.
“It is a disaster in progress,” Jones said.
What’s the current situation on the ground?
Some of the busiest U.S. airports continued to ask travelers to plan ahead in order to get through security lines.
Houston's main airport, George Bush Intercontinental, warned Sunday evening that TSA wait times could reach four hours or longer. Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport also told passengers to arrive at least four hours early for both domestic and international flights.
LaGuardia Airport posted an alert Sunday evening on its website that “TSA lines are currently longer than usual.”
Baltimore-Washington International Airport said Sunday on X that “wait times have greatly subsided on this Spring Break Sunday," but it still asked passengers to show up several hours early. Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans offered the same guidance.
Also on Sunday, passengers could once again see estimated security wait times at the three main airports serving the New York City area — LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty.
All three had removed that feature from their websites earlier in the week, citing “rapid” changes in passenger volumes and TSA staffing. For the same reason, they cautioned that the restored wait times my not always “reflect current conditions".
How soon will this help with airport delays?
It’s hard to tell.
Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former TSA officer who runs a travel newsletter called Gate Access, said the staffing crisis won’t improve significantly until officers are confident that they won’t be subjected to more skipped paychecks.
“It has to be an extended pay for them to come back or want to stay there,” he said, estimating longer lines could linger for another week or two.
Jones, the TSA union leader, offered a more optimistic outlook on Sunday, saying he's hopeful that passengers could see wait times ease closer to typical levels once workers are able to afford basic expenses like gas to get to work.
TSA will also have to decide whether to reopen the checkpoints and security lanes they closed or consolidated at some airports due to inadequate staffing, which led to passengers standing in screening lines that clogged check-in areas or showing up far too early for their flights.
A handful of airports have experienced daily TSA officer call-out rates of 40% or higher in recent weeks.
Sedensky reported from New York, Yamat from Las Vegas and Raby from Charleston, West Virginia. Associated Press journalist Julie Walker contributed from New York.
