Jackson airport, Mississippi’s busiest, faces possible shutdown amid DHS funding standoff

Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport could face closure as a prolonged DHS funding impasse strains TSA staffing

Mississippi’s capital city could soon face interrupted commercial air travel as a protracted federal funding impasse in Washington, D.C., continues to strain airport security operations across the country.

Congressional Republicans and Democrats are into the sixth week of tense negotiations over how to fund the Department of Homeland Security, and travelers at many large airports are waiting as long as four hours to pass through airport security. Some small hub airports, meanwhile, could be forced to close down air travel altogether due to a lack of Transportation Security Administration agents, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last week.

“You’re going to see small airports, I believe, shut down,” Duffy said during an interview with CNBC.

Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, Mississippi’s busiest airport, is among the Federal Aviation Administration’s list of 74 small hub airports, a classification based on annual passenger boardings. Staff at Jackson-Medgar screened about 630,000 passengers in 2025, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. By comparison, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport boarded more than 50 million passengers that year.

Although relatively small, Jackson is a central hub for business and government travel in Mississippi, with more than $2 billion in annual economic impact in 2025, according to the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority. Officials from JMAA did not respond to questions from The Mississippi Independent about contingency plans should the airport be forced to temporarily close.

The pressure stems from a partial shutdown of DHS, which oversees the TSA. Airport screeners are classified as essential workers and required to report for duty during shutdowns, but they, along with other DHS employees, are expected to work without pay during funding lapses. Historically, that has led to increased absences as employees seek temporary work elsewhere to cover expenses.

Approximately 3,400 TSA agents, representing 12 percent of the entire workforce, did not show up to work on Sunday, according to CBS News.

At the large airport nearest to Jackson, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, 42.3 percent of TSA staff were absent on Sunday, and at Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, 41.5 percent of staff called out, according to BBC reports.

In recent days, federal officials have begun implementing contingency plans, including temporarily suspending some services at smaller airports and deploying hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to augment security operations at 14 airports across the United States.

The standoff in the nation’s capital reflects a broader political deadlock. Congressional Republicans have pushed to fully fund DHS, while Democrats have sought to use their narrow margins in the Senate to impose limits on immigration enforcement activities carried out by ICE, stemming from the controversial killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota and the agency’s perceived reckless and lawless behavior during the past year.

The dispute has been complicated further by the president, who has urged Republican lawmakers to reject interim deals unless they include additional policy priorities, specifically the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require people to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.

The Save America Act is framed as a way to prevent noncitizen voting, though that is already illegal. Critics argue the bill is a ploy to disenfranchise eligible voters ahead of November’s midterm elections, in which Republicans are projected by most polls to lose seats. Injecting brazen politics into the effort, President Donald Trump has said he sees the act as a way to ensure Republicans retain congressional control in the midterm elections.

One of Mississippi’s two U.S. senators, Cindy Hyde-Smith, released a Facebook video on Monday blaming Democrats for the continued shutdown. “They won’t budge,” Hyde-Smith said. “They are not serious. They are not engaged. They just continue to play political games as usual.” She added: “Meanwhile, real Americans are paying the price. TSA agents, border patrol agents, Coast Guard men and women, hardworking public servants who show up every day to keep this country safe are doing it without their paychecks.”

U.S. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told Fox News on Monday that a bipartisan proposal to restore funding for airport security operations had been negotiated but was ultimately abandoned after Trump refused to support it.

“It would have worked,” Kennedy said. “We could have had TSA paid by the end of the week. But the president said no deal.”

Both Kennedy and Hyde-Smith sit on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees homeland security funding. Hyde-Smith did not respond to questions from The Mississippi Independent about the potential closure of the Jackson airport or her views on the president’s rejection of a deal to pay TSA employees.

Despite Trump’s refusal to support the act unless it advances broader Republican policy priorities, there could be a resolution this week. A bipartisan proposal presented on March 24, 2026, would restore funding to most of DHS but exclude funding for the arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants, according to multiple media reports. Republicans are expected to pursue ICE funding through the budget reconciliation process, which does not require Democratic votes.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said discussions between Republican leadership and Trump have been “very positive and productive,” according to AP. However, Trump is reportedly still not content with the deal.

Some smaller airports avoid funding vulnerabilities by participating in the federal Screening Partnership Program, which allows private contractors to handle passenger screening under TSA oversight. Tupelo Regional Airport is among those that have opted into the federal screening program. Jackson relies entirely on federal screeners, making it more directly exposed to the current funding lapse.

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Image: Unidentified TSA screener and a traveler at Jackson airport (via Jackson Municipal Airport Authority)