A standoff over federal TSA funding combined with an influx of spring break travelers and bad weather nationwide has created a perfect storm to frustrate travelers at Orlando International Airport.
On Wednesday, travelers at OIA waited in security checkpoint lines for up to 45 minutes at Terminals A and B, while TSA lines at Terminal C waited for as long as 40 minutes, all while fully occupied parking garages forced many into distant economy parking and a shuttle ride to their terminals. Lines were shorter Thursday, though still as long as a half an hour in one terminal.
Elsewhere, TSA lines have topped an hour at some airports, including New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports. At Chicago’s O’Hare, officials only expected things to get busier on Thursday as spring breakers returned home, according to NBC Chicago.
Airline passengers wait in long lines to get through the TSA security screening at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
The nationwide airport security delays are largely the fallout of the ongoing congressional battle over funding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Transportation Security Administration as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in the wake of controversial immigration actions in Minnesota and around the country.
Democrats in Congress have refused to fully fund DHS until it unless it undertakes significant reforms to its ongoing immigration crackdown, including requiring immigration agents to identify themselves, prohibiting the use of masks and allowing independent investigations of alleged misconduct, especially the killings of Minneapolis protesters Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in January.
President Donald Trump and congressional Republican allies haven’t budged and have rejected Democrats’ offer to fund the rest of DHS, including TSA, which would allow airport security agents to be paid while negotiations continue regarding ICE and Border Patrol.
As a result, numerous unpaid TSA officers have called out of work this week, with CBS News reporting nearly 40% calling out on Tuesday alone nationwide.
At an OIA food court, Jeff Atkins, having just flown into Orlando from Halifax, Canada with his wife and sons, said he was looking forward to visiting beaches on Florida’s Gulf Coast and going to baseball games. But he doesn’t feel the same about having to go through TSA when his vacation ends.
Atkins said he and his family have gone on several trips to Florida before, all through OIA, but have never seen the airport’s TSA lines this bad. While he and his family are flying through the prechecked lines, he said he might have changed travel plans if he had to go through the standard ones.
“I don’t know we wouldn’t have come,” he said. “[But] it would have made me sort of rethink our flights at least, maybe a smaller airport.”
Other travelers were less concerned with the delays.
22-year-old Jabz Lim, flying back to Connecticut with his grandfather and other relatives after visiting for spring break, said the wait times could be worse.
“It’s crazy, but I mean it is what it is. You can’t really do much about it,” he said. “We could complain all day but it’s not going to change anything. Just go with the flow.”
Lim, who has several relatives serving in the military, said he sympathized with the TSA agents as his own relatives have been similarly impacted by past government shutdowns. He agreed with his grandfather, who himself is a veteran, that the agents should get paid for their hard work.
Cesar Londono, an Orlando resident flying to Washington, D.C. for work, said he had seen OIA lines in the past that were “a lot” worse. When speaking about the partial funding lapse, he was more critical of federal workers than sympathetic.
“I don’t think that they themselves are allocating the personnel in a way that is effective. So do I want them to lose their job? No. Do I think it’s fair? No. But I think there should be some transparency” in how resources are being used in the context of lines, he said.
Despite the security delays, OIA spokesperson Angela Starke said Wednesday there hadn’t been a dramatic decrease in the number of TSA agents processing passengers at Orlando’s airport, allowing staffing levels to remain “mostly normal.”
She attributed any delays to spring break travel and flight cancellations over the past few days to nationwide storms.
Over one 24-hour period from Tuesday to Wednesday, there were 46 cancellations at OIA, according to Flight Tracker, and there were nearly 200 flight delays on Wednesday and more than 100 Thursday.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., President Donald Trump’s pick for Homeland Security secretary, testifies during a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing, Wednesday, March 18, 2026 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s choice to take over as Homeland Security secretary after firing outgoing secretary Kristi Noem, said it was imperative to fully fund the department.
“We have to get DHS funded,” Mullin said at an oft-contentious Senate hearing Wednesday. “We have to set the partisan side down.”
“We’re playing with fire,” he added.
The New York Daily News contributed to this report.