Airport security impacted at JFK, Houston and Atlanta as TSA workers call out
New York: It’s 2 p.m. at John F. Kennedy International Airport, and the main security line at Terminal 4 is so backed up that it extends past the check-in counters, through the lobby, and nearly out into the street outside the building.
“It’s pretty brutal,” says Austin Fratello, 27, who flew to Colorado. The New Yorker travels around JFK regularly and has never seen it like this. “My flight is at 7.15pm – [I’m] “Five hours early and it could still be close.”
Similar scenes are playing out at major airports across the United States as the partial government shutdown wreaks havoc on airport security and air travel.
The shutdown stems from U.S. Senate Democrats’ refusal to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws, following the killings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE and the Transportation Security Administration, which is responsible for airport security, has been partially shut down since Feb. 14. Republicans rejected attempts by Democrats to restart funding for TSA and other parts of DHS without funding ICE.
As a result, TSA workers have not been paid in more than a month, and many are absent from work, as typically occurs during a prolonged U.S. government shutdown.
More than a third of TSA workers at JFK airport reported being unemployed as of Monday (US time), according to DHS figures. Major airports in Atlanta, Houston and New Orleans had similar numbers.
Some airports across the country are telling travelers to arrive four hours before their flight departs. At Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, only two checkpoints were open, and estimated wait times exceeded 250 minutes.
At lunchtime on Tuesday — a quieter part of the day — desperate passengers at JFK were reluctantly jumping to the end of the snaking line, resigned to the possibility of missing their flights even though they had plenty of time.
73-year-old Annie Weiss travels urgently to Israel to visit her mother, whose health has suddenly deteriorated. The flight leaves in three hours, but he is sure to be taken out of the line if he starts boarding. “I will succeed,” he says. I told him he seemed optimistic. “Do we have a choice in this world today?”
I wear a suit and a press cord, which causes many stressed people to approach me for help. Karen Savage, 66, is on a break after returning from a holiday in Spain, where she was unaware of the airport chaos in her hometown.
“Are they on strike?” he asks before informing her about the government shutdown. “This is not true,” he says. “If we don’t pay them then I understand why they won’t work.”
Savage hails from Minneapolis, the epicenter of the nationwide debate over ICE and the Trump administration’s crackdown on so-called illegal aliens. He supports Democrats’ push to fund the agency.
“If they could use ICE appropriately, it wouldn’t be a problem,” he says. “But the way they use it in Minnesota, for example, is unconstitutional and criminal, so it’s not OK for a lot of people.”
Jordan and Meredith Blazak were supposed to fly to Los Angeles on Southwest Airlines earlier in the day, but their flight was canceled. Since they had to work tomorrow, they booked a flight on Delta Air Lines, which took them to JFK’s Terminal 4.
Meredith is pleased about one thing: Delta announced it is suspending special benefits for members of Congress, such as airport escorts and expedited screening, until the impasse over TSA funding is resolved. “They shouldn’t enjoy privileges while the rest of us suffer,” he says.
Lawmakers in Washington said a deal to end the shutdown, now in its 39th day, is nearing but still not final. Republicans are now proposing legislation that would fund all of DHS except the parts of ICE involved in the Trump administration’s deportation drive.
“It’s time to get this done,” Senate Republican leader John Thune said Tuesday afternoon.
But President Donald Trump has been reluctant to endorse any compromise. He said over the weekend that Republicans shouldn’t make any deals with “Crazy, Country-Destroying, Radical Left Democrats” until the party agrees to pass the Save America Act, which would require identification to vote in all states.
“I don’t want to comment until I see the deal,” Trump said Tuesday. “I guess I’m not very happy with any deal they make.”
He suggested the issue could be a political winner for Republicans. “This is the Democrats’ problem,” Trump said. “I actually said to the Senate: why would you do it, it’s the Democrats’ problem, I think the polls show it’s the Democrats’ problem.”
The president also sent ICE agents to the worst-hit airports to assist TSA. In Houston, ICE personnel were filmed handing out bottled water to waiting passengers or holding people waiting in line as they went to the restroom.
I met a friend at JFK who was flying to Seattle. He is way ahead of his departure time but decides to book a later flight just in case. He told me later that he had been in the queue for more than three hours.
As the line begins to extend its terminal gates, Colorado-bound passenger Fratello remains stoic. “This is definitely causing problems for the American people, hopefully we can get past this,” he says.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
