TSA workers go unpaid as unpredictable wait times mount during shutdown. Here’s what travelers should know this weekend

By Alaa Elassar, CNN

(CNN) — Unpaid Transportation Security Administration workers are struggling to stay afloat — and on the job — amid a partial government shutdown that has frustrated travelers inching through security lines that have sometimes stretched for hours, with unpredictable wait times expected to continue this weekend.

“I feel bad for everyone except for the people in Washington, DC,” said Carlos Monroe, a traveler whose family waited for more than three hours at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport early Friday but still missed their 6 a.m. flight.

“It’s just not fair,” Monroe said, lamenting from the airport’s food court as his wife sat nearby with her head down. “The big people aren’t paying the price for the little people.”

Early Saturday, the strain was visible at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, where the security wait times stretched to over two hours but improved throughout the day.

“This is insane! We didn’t think it was going to be this bad,” traveler Bruna Ray told CNN’s Rafael Romo in Atlanta this morning.

“Delta didn’t tell us to be here any earlier than the two to three hours recommendation,” British traveler Lee George Bond told CNN. “So maybe they should’ve told us to be here five hours beforehand.”

The situation is poised to deteriorate even further as some TSA officers, who some lawmakers say are being treated as “political pawns,” continue working without pay since the shutdown began in mid-February, while others, pushed to the brink, are walking away from the job altogether.

Officials warn this may only be the beginning. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the current disruptions are “child’s play” compared to what could happen if TSA workers miss another paycheck, a scenario that could push an already strained system closer to collapse. And if the shutdown continues, some airports may be forced to close, other officials have said.

President Donald Trump said Saturday he would deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to US airports on Monday if an agreement isn’t reached to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

It is unclear what function the ICE agents would perform since they’re not trained in airport security screening. TSA screeners have a several months-long training period before they’re on the job, though airline employees and private security companies have partnered on line controlling and guarding exit doors.

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security.

Airports are supposed to be places of motion, a steady current of departures and arrivals, of reunions and escapes. But this week, that rhythm is breaking down — and travelers are left wondering when they’ll make it to the people and places waiting on the other side.

Here’s what to know.

Financial strain on TSA workers causes ripple effect for travelers

For more than a month, TSA officers have been showing up to airports across the country without getting fully paid.

For many, it’s become a familiar and frustrating routine. This marks the third funding lapse in just six months. As lawmakers remain deadlocked over Department of Homeland Security funding, this time over a broader immigration debate, more than 61,000 employees are affected.

Low morale and financial strain are pushing workers to their limits and, increasingly, off the job.

“A TSA agent doesn’t make the most amount of money … and they’re paying rent and trying to put food on the table. They can’t actually make ends meet during this time,” Duffy told Fox News on Saturday. “So they’re going to pick a different career path, and they’ll go somewhere else.”

For six straight days, call-out rates have hovered above 9% — with a record 10.22% absentee rate set on Monday — as employees continue working without pay. At least 366 officers have quit since the shutdown began, according to DHS.

The impact has been more severe in certain airports. More than a third of screeners at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were absent earlier this week, forcing passengers to wait in security lines for up to two hours. On Friday, more than half of TSA workers called out at Houston’s William P. Hobby International Airport.

“I wouldn’t expect them [TSA workers] to come to work if they’re not getting paid, so, it’s kind of … what are we going to do?” said traveler Avishai Harris, who was going from Atlanta to Washington, DC on Saturday morning.

Trump on Saturday suggested ICE agents could be deployed to airports to take on both security roles and carry out immigration arrests, specifically targeting “illegal immigrants,” with a stated emphasis on those from Somalia.

“If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before,” Trump wrote, in part, on Truth Social.

It is unclear if the ICE agents would be able to perform full screening duties, but they could potentially assist in more limited roles — such as managing lines, directing passengers, or helping move people through the checkpoint process — to free up trained TSA officers for critical security functions.

Earlier in the day, Elon Musk had taken to his platform X to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during the funding impasse that he said is “negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country.”

It is unclear if there is legal pathway for Musk to pay government salaries as he suggests. CNN has reached out to the Trump administration for comment.

The strain is deeply personal for many workers. Aaron Barker, a union leader representing TSA employees in Atlanta, told CNN officers are dealing with “eviction notices, vehicle repossessions, empty refrigerators and overdrawn bank accounts,” all while continuing to show up to keep airports running.

One TSA agent in Atlanta, who recently relocated for the job, told CNN he’s had to ask for extensions on rent and car payments as he braces for the possibility of missing another paycheck. When describing the pressure, he said it’s “more than I can express.”

Local support from free meals to parking assistance has helped, but only temporarily.

“At what point does the dam break for so many of us?” he asked.

Another TSA worker knows that pressure all too well. Growing up in poverty, Lakeya White said she saw her TSA job as a path toward stability and a future she had worked hard to build.

“Landing this job, I felt like I finally had that at one point,” she told CNN. “And then it was kind of taken away.”

Late last year, a 43-day government-wide shutdown, the longest in US history, ended after many TSA officers and Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers stopped showing up to work, disrupting travel.

After enduring repeated government shutdowns, White said the strain became too much. Two weeks ago, she ultimately left the agency after four years.

“Going to work knowing you should be paid, but then you check your account every two weeks and nothing is there, it’s devastating, honestly, because you know that now you have to work 10 times as hard to get caught back up, to rebuild your savings, and to feel comfortable again,” she said.

The delays and risk of airport operations under pressure

The strain on TSA staffing is now spilling directly into airport operations and, experts warn, into potential safety concerns.

The situation is unfolding during peak spring break travel — but the concern goes beyond inconvenience.

Former TSA Administrator John Pistole warned longer wait times and crowded security lines could create a dangerous vulnerability. Large groups of travelers gathered in slow-moving queues may present what he described as a potential “soft target.”

“From the standpoint of a suicide bomber, or a shooter … it’s a double problem,” Pistole told CNN, noting both the concentration of people and the strain on the system.

Compounding the problem is the weather. A system is expected to bring severe weather risks across parts of the Ohio Valley this weekend, including damaging winds, hail and the possibility of isolated tornadoes.

Meanwhile, passengers in rolling chairs, parents with baby strollers and travelers needing extra assistance, whether due to disability or communication challenges, were being funneled into a separate line Friday morning at Atlanta’s main airport.

But even that queue, normally a brief detour before screening, snaked past the main security area and spilled into the airport’s atrium.

Ambria Britt, who has multiple sclerosis and cannot stand for long periods, was forced to pay a stranger to push her wheelchair through the jammed line.

“Normally, I just go straight through,” she told CNN. “I just don’t understand. Pay your workers, because we need them.”

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CNN’s Ryan Young, Devon M. Sayers, Aaron Cooper, Alexandra Skores, Andy Rose, Rebekah Riess and Hanna Park contributed to this report.