TSA lines are about to get a lot worse

Transportation Security Administration officials are feeling the pressure of the latest government shutdown, and it could translate into longer lines at airports across the country once agents start missing their paychecks next Friday.

“Two things will happen,” predicted Mike Gayzagian, a TSA worker and leader of his local union. “People will start shouting because they have to look for other jobs, and people who have other jobs [offers] I will take them and leave the agency.”

The Department of Homeland Security has not been funded for 25 days as Democrats demand some accountability for the president’s unpopular immigration campaign. Some DHS staff, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, continue to be paid because of the One Big Beautiful Bill, but TSA agents are among those who have to work without pay until a deal is reached. So far, the White House and Republicans have not budged.

Travelers are already encountering unusually long lines at some major airports, including Houston and Atlanta, but union officials said staffing problems are likely to become more widespread as the shutdown drags on. During the last pay period, workers received only a partial paycheck that covered the last week of work before the lapse occurred.

“At some point, everyone will run out of money.”

– Mike Gayzagian, TSA worker and union leader

Gayzagian, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2617, said he has been seeing about two resignations a day among the roughly 2,500 officials in New England, a number he expects to increase.

“At some point, everyone will run out of money,” he said.

Workers at several airports expressed frustration over how little attention this partial closure has received compared to previous ones that affected a larger portion of the government.

“It seems like no one knows that we won’t get paid this time,” said Rachel Burnett-Parker, a TSA officer in Boise, Idaho.

She said she had to leave work earlier than usual on Tuesday to relieve her husband of childcare duties before he left for his own job. The couple took their 1-year-old son out of daycare during the shutdown to save money.

“I can’t afford child care,” Burnett-Parker said. “A lot of people talk about how they’re trying to do Uber Eats and things like that to make enough money to survive.”

Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Senate Democrats have said they will continue to block funding bills for DHS unless Republicans and the Trump administration agree to some basic restrictions on ICE and Border Patrol, such as implementing stricter use-of-force protocols and banning face masks for agents. Polls have shown that a large majority of Americans believe the administration has gone too far with its deportation campaign in cities like Minneapolis, where two anti-ICE protesters were shot and killed by federal agents.

The relatively limited scope of the shutdown has reinforced a long-standing sense of second-class citizenship at TSA. Its workers received a lower pay scale than other federal employees when the agency was created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and it took years before they had the right to bargain collectively like other government workers. The Trump administration has sought to eliminate that immediately and dissolve the agency’s union, although a court order has kept the union contract in place for now.

TSA agents generally don’t make a lot of money. Most positions start with a salary between $40,000 and $40,000, according to the federal government’s employment board. Many workers have relied on donated food and gas cards during the closures, but there appears to be less support during this time. Burnett-Parker said her airport lounge has a fraction of the free canned goods it had compared to the previous closure.

Cameron Cochems, TSA union leader in Boise, said many younger employees could look for different jobs for comparable wages and not have to wonder if they will work without pay. He said he was recently talking to other officers during his break, and several of them said they would probably quit if they make it to April without a check.

“No one wants people to miss their flights,” Cochems said. “When passengers think about the extra minute they will have to wait, it is someone [a worker] whose life is being turned upside down. I hope people think about it that way.”