Airline passengers, including Spring Breakers, are being forced stand idle in hours-long TSA airport across the country due to the partial government shutdown.
Would-be travelers had to slog it out for hours in Atlanta, Charlotte, New Orleans and Houston over the weekend as the start of the spring break rush kicked off, with the misery continuing on Monday in Chicago as staffing shortage hit security checkpoints.
Officials tied the disruptions to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which funds the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Democrats refused to include DHS in a recent spending bill due in part to alleged mismanagement by recently ousted secretary Kristi Noem.
The partial shutdown has left about 50,000 TSA screeners working without pay, spiking absences and creating massive lines at airports nationwide.
The White House Rapid Response X account shared a news package, saying: 'Democrats need to end this purely political shutdown NOW!'
That followed a statement from the DHS which carried the same message, putting the blame on Democrats.
They said: 'Americans across the country are now feeling the fallout from the RECKLESS Democrat shutdown of DHS.'
People wait in long TSA lines as the partial government shutdown continues for several weeks at airports like Chicago O'Hare on Monday
Officials tied the disruptions to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, passengers are seen in William P. Hobby Airport in Houston on Sunday
It continued: 'Travelers are facing TSA lines up to NEARLY 3 HOURS LONG at some major airports, causing missed flights and massive delays during peak travel.
'This chaos is a direct result of Democrats and their refusal to fund DHS. Their political stunt is forcing patriotic TSA officers to work without pay - leading to financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.
'Enough is enough: stop holding national security and everyday Americans hostage. Democrats must fund DHS NOW.'
In Houston on Sunday, one passenger told ABC13: 'We got here at 10AM, my flight was departing at 1:50 and we're not going to make that.'
In Louis Armstrong International Airport, New Orleans, the line for security was so long that it snaked all the way into a parking garage outside.
Footage emerged online showing passengers hauling their luggage through the multi-story on Sunday morning to reach the end of the line.
At William P. Hobby Airport in Houston was thousands of passengers had to line up for hours on end, footage taken at the airport over the weekend showed.
Travelers queued on stairways, through multiple concourses and even baggage claim with just one security line open on Sunday morning.
In Louis Armstrong International Airport, New Orleans, the line for security was so long that it snaked all the way into a parking garage outside
Airline passengers wait in long lines to get through the TSA security screening at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Sunday, March 8
On Monday, the William P. Hobby X account updated travelers saying that the TSA PreCheck line was back open after being closed on Sunday.
Over the weekend they had urged travelers to arrive at least three hours before their flights and said wait times could last up to two hours.
Sunday's longer-than-usual wait times came on top of flight delays in recent days in places like Atlanta due to weather.
The partial shutdown entered its third week since funding lapsed on February 14.
The partisan standoff pits House Republicans, who passed clean DHS funding bills against Senate Democrats demanding ICE reforms and separate funding for TSA.