Trump sent ICE to fix the TSA crisis and it didn’t work, so Congress is fighting instead, and flyers are the ones paying for all of it

Flyers across the US are being warned about airport wait times stretching to four hours or more, with some travelers scrapping flights entirely and opting for cross-state drives instead. The disruption traces back to the ongoing partial government shutdown, which has left TSA agents without paychecks for over two weeks.

With no pay coming in, many agents are either refusing to show up or quitting outright, leaving major airports in chaos while others appear to be running normally. The story gained traction when reported by the Daily Dot, which highlighted the increasingly unpredictable experience facing travelers at airports nationwide.

President Trump’s administration attempted to address the problem by deploying ICE agents to help, but the move did little to ease the backlog. Congress remains deadlocked, with House Republicans rejecting a Senate deal that could end the shutdown. Speaker Mike Johnson proposed a stopgap measure to temporarily fund the TSA, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dismissed it as “dead on arrival.”

The wait times are real, but they vary wildly depending on where you fly

Reddit has become a real-time log of the chaos. Multiple users have posted screenshots of airline notices advising passengers to “allow at least 4 hours or more for domestic and international screenings” due to current federal conditions. User r/New-Adhesiveness8606 wrote “Cannot believe this is real” before ultimately reporting their line took about an hour after arriving four and a half hours early, with Delta allowing early lounge access without penalty.

Others haven’t been as fortunate. User r/jerryberrydurham reported a 6.5-hour wait at MSY, while r/Scout_It_Down breezed through LAX in two minutes.

The disparity has fueled theories that early arrivals are actually making lines longer by flooding checkpoints, and that agent morale varies significantly by state and region. Amid the broader government shutdown fallout affecting federal workers, the TSA staffing crisis has become one of the most visible points of public frustration.

The downstream effects go well beyond long lines. User r/pridkett noted that passengers missing flights due to TSA delays then flood ticket counters, creating a second bottleneck that moves far more slowly than standard check-in.

User r/No-Environment-7899 described arriving at a destination only to find all rental cars in the city already sold out, with stranded passengers taking rideshares to a neighboring city just to find a vehicle. User r/jason242424 put the broader frustration plainly: “I f—ing hate it here. We pay for TSA with our tax dollars why are we even paying taxes anymore?”