Federal immigration officers were at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday, March 23, 2026, to assist with airport security as the partial closure continues. The airport advised travelers to prepare for a wait of at least four hours to pass through security on Monday. (Photo: Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
The Department of Homeland Security said airport security workers missed work on Monday at the highest rate since the partial government shutdown in mid-February, and the Trump administration sent immigration officials to some airports to try to keep lines moving.
Travelers reported hours-long security lines at major airports in Atlanta and Houston, while waits of 30 minutes or more were reported at several other hubs on Monday.
Nearly 3,500 Transportation Security Administration agents, or about 11.8% of the scheduled workforce nationwide, were furloughed Monday. TSA officers have been working without pay since the department that oversees the TSA began losing funding on Feb. 14 amid a congressional dispute over immigration enforcement.
According to DHS, several major airports have had recall rates exceeding 20%. They were:
- 42.3% in New Orleans
- 41.5% in Atlanta
- 39.1% in Houston
- 38.1% in Baltimore
- 37.4% at the international airport. John F. Kennedy in New York
- 24.7% in Pittsburgh
- 24.2% in Philadelphia
- 21.7% at Laguardia Airport in New York
- 20.3% in Phoenix
ICE to airports
More than 400 TSA employees have left their jobs since the “senseless and reckless shutdown” began, DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in an email.
Bis blamed the shutdown and related air security staffing problems on Democrats in Congress and confirmed that DHS would send officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another DHS agency, to assist TSA at airports.
TSA officers “cannot afford gas, child care, food or rent,” she said.
“While Democrats continue to jeopardize the safety, reliability and ease of our air travel, President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, who are currently funded by Congress, to impacted airports. This will help strengthen TSA’s efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize disruptions to air travel.”
President Donald Trump praised ICE in comments to reporters Monday morning and suggested he might also call in National Guard troops to help at airports.
“They came in so, so hard,” he said of ICE officers. “They’ll do just fine. And if that’s not enough, I’ll bring in the National Guard.”
Tom Homan, the White House border monitor who coordinates much of Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda, said in an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that ICE officers will primarily handle duties that don’t require extensive training, such as making sure no one enters secure areas through exits.
“We’re just there to help TSA do their job in areas that don’t require their expertise,” he said, rather than reviewing the X-ray machines, CNN’s Dana Bash said. “But there are roles we can play to free up TSA officers from a non-essential role, such as guarding the exit, so they can get back to the scanning machines and move people more quickly.”
DHS declined to provide a list of airports where ICE would deploy flights, citing “operational security” concerns.
ICE officers were spotted at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the nation’s busiest, where a four-hour wait at the security line was reported on Monday.
The shutdown still occurs
Federal law requires TSA officers to work even during the shutdown, although they will not be paid until funding is restored.
Despite ICE being at the center of the shutdown debate, the end of DHS funding had no impact on ICE because Republicans provided massive funding to the agency in the form of tax cuts and spending bills they passed last year along party lines.
Democrats refused to fund the department’s fiscal 2026 budget bill without making major changes to the administration’s immigration enforcement, which reached a crisis point after the deaths of two U.S. citizens in January in Minneapolis.
“With the Democrats suspended, President Trump is using every tool at his disposal to help American travelers who face hours-long lines at airports across the country, especially during spring break and the holiday season, which is very important to many American families,” Bis said.
On Saturday, during a uncommon weekend session, the U.S. Senate again failed to advance a DHS funding plan.
LaGuardia fatal accident
The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada plane were killed and more than 40 people were injured when the plane collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport behind schedule Sunday.
The incident was unrelated to problems with TSA, which is not responsible for security on runways or anywhere outside airport terminals, but it did further delay and complicate travel in the New York area.
Ashley Murray contributed to this report.
