If you’re flying out of Atlanta, give yourself more time than usual. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is warning travelers to arrive at least four hours early — for both domestic and international flights — as security lines stretch out the door and onto the sidewalk.
✈️ Why It Matters: Travelers are missing flights, and there’s no clear end in sight. The people stuck in those lines are real Atlantans — families, workers, and visitors — caught in the middle of a political fight happening far from the airport.
🚨 What’s Happening: The airport’s own wait time page has stopped showing estimated wait times altogether. A message on the site tells travelers to plan for four or more hours at security, as TSA staffing has collapsed to a point where the agency can no longer keep up.
About eight ICE agents were spotted moving through the airport Monday morning. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens confirmed Sunday that federal agents from ICE and Homeland Security Investigations would be deployed to help manage crowds and keep lines moving — not to conduct immigration enforcement, according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
🔍 Between the Lines: TSA workers are not getting paid right now. The Department of Homeland Security has gone unfunded because Congress has not passed a budget. Atlanta’s TSA call-out rate has been sitting in the mid-30% range — meaning roughly one in three agents isn’t showing up. Nationally, that number has climbed past 11.5%.
The funding standoff comes down to a fight between Democrats and Republicans over immigration enforcement. Democrats have blocked DHS funding as leverage to win concessions on how ICE and Border Patrol operate. Republicans have not agreed to those terms.
🏛️ The Big Picture: A deal to reopen DHS funding doesn’t appear close. President Donald Trump posted Sunday night that he would not support any agreement unless it included provisions from the SAVE Act — such as voter ID requirements, an end to mail-in voting, and all-paper ballots — along with restrictions on transgender athletes in sports.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is running for governor, called Monday for TSA to be privatized, pointing to a federal program that already allows private companies to run airport screening under federal oversight. Airports in San Francisco, Orlando, and Kansas City currently use that program. Raffensperger called the situation at the world’s busiest airport “inexcusable.”
