HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Fighting over ICE funding is creating airport nightmares across the country. If you’re flying out of George Bush Intercontinental Airport, you could be waiting around an hour and a half to get through security.<\/p>\n
People in line told ABC13 that, despite the online estimated wait times, the line stayed moving.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been in line for exactly 29 minutes! So that’s not too bad!” one flyer said.<\/p>\n
But the visual beast flyers were greeted with had them wondering if they arrived early enough.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to lose the flight basically,” another flyer said.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Bush Airport closes some TSA checkpoints as partial government shutdown drags on<\/a><\/p>\n Rice University political professor Mark Jones said it’s rare to see visual representations of what happens when lawmakers can’t work together. But as Congress continues to fight over Department of Homeland Security funding, unpaid TSA workers are calling out, and lines are backing up.<\/p>\n “We are seeing growing impatience among Americans that the inability of Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the White House to come together on some kind of agreement is causing such an inconvenience for Americans and severely and negatively impacting TSA workers,” Jones said.<\/p>\n Jones said this week we have seen some talks between Republicans and Democrats in Washington D.C. as U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan pushes to find common ground, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune threatens to take away the senators’ upcoming spring break if a DHS budget isn’t agreed on.<\/p>\n “What we need to occur here is a compromise so I think some of the things the White House is going to offer is more rules regarding the use of body cameras by ICE agents, them having to identify themselves, and them retaining that video footage for a constant period of time and having no go areas where you won’t have ICE raids like hospitals or schools or churches,” Jones said. “But by the same token, Democrats are probably going to have to give up any hope of requiring warrants for any arrests or levels of monitoring like rules that they don’t wear any face masks whatsoever.”<\/p>\n TSA workers haven’t been paid for a month, with many now calling out to pick up second jobs or gig work, causing these delays. Jones said many TSA workers find that the decision to buy groceries or make a mortgage payment forces them to look for other ways to earn income.<\/p>\n For more news updates, follow Lileana Pearson on Facebook<\/a>, X<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n