By Abby Rathburn | Staff Writer
As students prepare to fly home for Easter break, short-staffed airports and longer security lines pose challenges for the journey.
After 42 days of a partial government shutdown, the House of Representatives approved a short-term bill funding the Department of Homeland Security — including TSA — Friday, according to CBS News. But airport lines have persisted, and airports still face short staffing.
Similar to Dallas Love Field, Justin Millican, the assistant airport manager of Waco Airport, said that it’s the bigger airports on the news experiencing longer wait times — a problem the Waco airport hasn’t faced.
“The Waco airport is not experiencing those longer lines because we are a smaller airport, but we still recommend arriving an hour and a half early for a flight,” Millican said.
However, some students don’t have the option to choose a smaller airport. For those looking for direct flights, smaller airports like Waco have connecting flights to the final destination.
Eva Godbold, a freshman from Zachary, La., said that she’s flying out of Dallas-Fort Worth for Easter break because it is the only airline nearby that flies directly to her hometown. Given her previous experience during spring break, she is a bit concerned about the long lines at a bigger airport.
“I flew out of New Orleans for spring break, and it took three hours to get through TSA, which was crazy,” Godbold said. “Literally everyone was in the same line, and PreCheck wasn’t even happening.”
Similarly, freshman Timothy Nelson from San Diego said he also experienced long lines over spring break. Both Godbold and Nelson plan to arrive early, just in case of longer lines.
“When I left for spring break, the security lines were super long, wrapping around all of checking and the entire area, so that makes me a bit nervous flying out,” Nelson said.
According to the DFW website, security wait times have gradually decreased over the past few weeks. Because of staff shortages, the DEH assigned ICE officers to work at some security checkpoints.
With continued political controversy over protecting the borders and ICE treatment of suspected illegals, this deployment increases tensions. San Diego freshman Noah Seroter said ICE agents working at airport security are troubling for anyone traveling this weekend.
“I don’t like ICE officers in airports because they’ve proven that they are willing to arrest people in airports in a manner that disturbs the peace,” Seroter said. “On the other hand, Congress needs to do its job and pass funding to fund the Department of Homeland Security because both sides are guilty of playing politics with people’s jobs and with people’s daily lives.”
