Whitney West was warned by her family about long security lines, so she arrived at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport nearly four hours before her flight was scheduled to leave Monday. West was headed to Sarasota, Florida, to attend her grandmother's funeral.
After hours in line and just 45 minutes left before her flight departed, West had only barely made it inside the airport. There were hundreds still ahead of her to go through security.
West said if she missed her flight, she'd have to miss the funeral.
"I don’t know how else to get there," West said. "I’m gonna lose the money that I spent on the flight, which [for the] flight there and flight back, that’s over $600."
Travelers hoping to fly out of Bush Airport need to budget several hours of time just to clear security lines as the number of checkpoints had been reduced to two as of Tuesday morning – and the estimated wait times were between 3-4 hours, according to the Houston Airport System. There are closed checkpoints and lengthy lines because hundreds of thousands of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) workers, including from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), have worked without pay during a partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14.
Congress hasn't renewed DHS funding as Democrats and Republicans remain in a standoff over the direction of the department and, more specifically, about the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration. ICE arrests have surged in states such as Texas, and its agents have been involved in the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens.
ICE agents were deployed to airports in Houston and across the country on Monday to assist TSA workers, many of whom are calling out sick oreven quittingas their financial strains pile up. The crippling staffing shortages have created chaotic and dramatic lines for passengers.
Both of Houston's airports, Bush and Hobby, ranked among the worst for staff callouts over the weekend, according todata obtained by CBS.
On Monday, travelers at Bush faced yet another day of extremely long lines, with wait times stretching for hours, causing many to miss their flights and others to rebook while stuck in line.
Passengers checking TSA wait times online also expressed frustration by what they said were inaccurate wait quotes.
Shelby Loya was headed to Lafayette, Louisiana, for a work trip Monday afternoon.
"I might have a better chance of driving there," Loya said while laughing.
Loya said the TSA app quoted her a wait of roughly 180-210 minutes for security, but when she arrived at the airport and saw the lines, she grew more concerned.
"I feel like it’s gonna be much longer because there’s still a lot of people that are confused, which will just add to the time," Loya said.
For many passengers, Monday was their second day of travel troubles. Duke Jones was on his way home to Kansas City after spending time in Guatemala. After landing in Houston Sunday night for his connection, Jones was held up in TSA wait lines for hours and missed his flight.
The delay cost him an unexpected night in a hotel.
"Nobody covered our hotels," Jones said. "We had to pay for that because it was because of the TSA and not our airline."
On Monday, Jones wasn't taking any chances.
"Our flight leaves at 8 o’clock tonight," Jones said at noon Monday. "We came this early to have an eight-hour window."
Ariana Basulto had a similar experience. After visiting family in the Heights neighborhood in Houston, she arrived to the airport Sunday night three hours ahead of her flight home to Charleston, South Carolina.
"I [thought] that’d be enough time," Basulto said. "I just missed my flight by two minutes. They closed the gates on me and they told me to try again for tomorrow. I had to book a new flight for $300."
On Monday, Basulto budgeted five hours of lead time and said she prepared herself for the lines to look as bad as they did Sunday.
"Looks way worse today," Basulto said in the early afternoon.
After nearly four hours in line, she made it to the security checkpoint. Basulto says she arrived at her gate with just two minutes to spare.
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