The massive airport security lines that ruined spring break are finally vanishing. Travelers at major U.S. hubs saw wait times drop to just five minutes on Monday afternoon. This sudden relief is tied directly to the ongoing 45-day partial government shutdown. A fierce congressional standoff over President Trump’s mass deportation operations starved the Department of Homeland Security of cash starting in mid-February. Agents missed their paychecks. The travel gridlock was immediate.
Things shifted violently heading into the weekend. President Trump signed an emergency order on Friday directing DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to use alternative operational funds for immediate backpay. The checks are finally hitting bank accounts. The results are highly visible.
Security checkpoints at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson operated with five to ten-minute waits by noon today. That is a staggering shift from last week. Lines were snaking out the physical terminal doors just days ago. Travelers were warned to arrive four hours early just to make domestic flights.
New York hubs are also recovering, according to a detailed report released on Monday. Wait times at John F. Kennedy International and most of LaGuardia fell under 30 minutes. One isolated terminal at LaGuardia is still struggling with 90-minute delays. The staffing math explains everything. The TSA call-out rate dropped to 10.6 percent on Sunday. That represents about 3,101 workers missing their shifts, down from a peak of 12.4 percent on Friday.
The government shutdown and spring break are causing long TSA lines at Florida airports. See current wait times for major hubs. https://t.co/6Jt3LadB3h
— Tallahassee Democrat (@TDOnline) March 30, 2026
The damage to the workforce is real. Over 500 TSA officers quit the agency entirely during the weeks without pay. The administration deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to screeners’ posts to stop the bleeding. White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed this weekend that those ICE agents will remain stationed at commercial airports indefinitely. They will stay until the regular TSA workforce rebuilds its ranks and normal operations resume.