The DHS Shutdown Is 29 Days Old. Airline CEOs, TSA, and Even One Democrat Have Had Enough.
50,000 unpaid TSA agents. 3-hour security lines. 300+ who've quit. And Democrats are still holding out over an agency that's already funded.
TSA Lines, Unpaid Agents, and a Cracking Democrat Caucus
The partial government shutdown is now 29 days old. The Department of Homeland Security remains unfunded. And the consequences are no longer abstract — they're showing up at every airport security checkpoint in America.
The Situation on the Ground
Roughly 50,000 TSA officers are working without pay. Over 300 have already quit. Airport security lines at major hubs are stretching past three hours. And this is happening during spring break travel season, with a heightened domestic terror threat environment following U.S. military operations against Iran.
TSA itself took the unusual step of posting on social media: "3+ hour TSA lines for travelers. 300+ TSA officers who have quit. A $0 paycheck for those continuing to serve. Enough is enough. No more playing politics with the lives of Americans."
How We Got Here
Democrats in the Senate have refused to pass DHS funding unless their demands for ICE reforms are met — even though ICE is already fully funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The standoff has left every other DHS function, including TSA, Customs, and the Secret Service, in limbo.
Republicans have offered multiple bipartisan bills to reopen the department. Democrats have blocked them all.
Airline CEOs Sound the Alarm
On Sunday, the CEOs of the 10 largest U.S. airlines — American, United, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska Air, and others — published an open letter in The Washington Post demanding Congress act immediately.
"Too many travelers are having to wait in extraordinarily long — and painfully slow — lines at checkpoints. First, leaders should immediately come together to reach an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Then they need to act so this problem never happens again."
This comes after a 43-day government shutdown last fall that led to widespread flight disruptions and a 10% FAA-ordered flight cut at major airports.
'Blood on Their Hands'
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chairman Emeritus of both the House Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security committees, didn't hold back on Fox News Sunday. After listing recent domestic attacks — from a New York bombing plot to the Michigan synagogue attack to a Virginia veteran killed in a classroom — McCaul delivered a blunt warning:
"The idea of shutting down the Department of Homeland Security at such a high terror threat level is unconscionable. I think it's political malpractice, it is criminal, and they're going to have, if they continue this, Shannon, they will have blood on their hands."
Cracks in the Democrat Wall
The pressure may be working. On Friday, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) publicly broke ranks, calling for DHS to be funded and for the ICE debate to be handled separately.
"Certainly, we need to fund the Department of Homeland Security, and we need, in my view, to cut away all the conversation on ICE, which is its own conversation, from all the core missions of the Department of Homeland Security."
Slotkin's shift came after a migrant attacked a synagogue in her home state of Michigan — a reminder that these aren't theoretical risks.
The Bottom Line
Democrats lost the House, the Senate, and the White House in 2024. They're using the DHS shutdown as leverage over an agency that's already funded, while TSA agents sell blood plasma to pay their bills and Americans wait three hours to get through airport security during an active terror threat. The political math on this isn't hard. The question is how many more attacks it takes before the rest of the Democrat caucus follows Slotkin's lead.
Sources
• RedState: McCaul Blood on Their Hands