Tipsheet

Democrats' Refusal to Reopen the Government May Force TSA to Shut Down Airports

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  March 17, 2026 1:15 PM

It's been a month since the Democratic Party shut down the government — again — to use the suffering of Americans, including government employees, as political leverage. This time, they're demanding that Congress defund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and abolish ICE. Why? Because the Democrats want unfettered illegal immigration in our country, so they can use them as a voting bloc to win elections and cement their political power.

They don't care about the TSA workers or others who aren't getting paid, and they certainly don't care about the Americans who are facing long lines at airport security checkpoints. Here's a breakdown of how this is impacting both working and traveling Americans:

Now Acting Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl says the Democrats' shutdown may mean that some airports will have to close due to staffing shortages.

"We're doing absolutely everything we can," Stahl said. "We have a national deployment office force, and we've fully depleted that. So at this point, we're fully stretched and so, frankly, there's not much else we can do."

"As the weeks continue, if this continues, it's not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports, particularly smaller ones, if call-out rates go up and ... a lot of these officers can't afford to come in," Stahl continued. "I talked to one officer this week. She's a single mother and she has a special needs child and she can't afford to pay for her special needs child's child care."

"I believe it's frankly unconscionable that we have Senate Democrats that are playing ... they're holding our folks' financial livelihood hostage over political games, political partisanship. We really need to get back to normal order," Stahl said.

Cracks are starting to form in the Senate Democrats' obstructionist wall. Elissa Slotkin, who literally voted to keep DHS shut down while an Islamic terrorist was trying to kill Jewish children in her home state of Michigan, seemed to indicate Democrats might revisit that in light of four terrorist attacks on American soil in two weeks.

Last time, pressure on Democrats forced them to cave and end the Schumer Shutdown in November, and that shutdown was largely over Obamacare subsidies. While they're wrong and have only made health insurance more expensive (and healthcare worse), that's an issue on which America is more equally divided.

This time around, Democrats have literally shut down the government and made Americans suffer so they can have open borders and unfettered immigration into this country. They don't care about the violent criminals, the actual terrorists, or the dangerous drivers they import if they think it'll help them win elections. Now, Americans who rely on smaller airports to travel, and any American who travels at all, are being forced to languish in hours-long security lines and face the closure of their airports altogether.

For illegal aliens.

That's not going to win over voters, who still support President Trump on immigration enforcement.

Yes, it is.

Last week, Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz said Democrats feel "serene" about this shutdown. Last time, Rep. Katherine Clark and Senator Chris Coons both said the suffering of Americans was something they'd use as political leverage to push their agenda.

In short, Democrats want this. They're celebrating it. They're trying to capitalize politically off of it.

Voters need to make sure they aren't rewarded for this.