After Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the suspension of TSA PreCheck and Global Entry due to the partial government shutdown, the White House reversed her on PreCheck. Global Entry, though, was ordered closed.
- Her claim was that fewer staffing resources (because of agents now showing up for work) needed to be dealt with. Screeners would be deferring pay until appropriations were completed for the agency.
- So she’d focus on general travelers rather than priority programs.
- But these programs actually reduce staffing needs. Pushing everyone through standard security and immigration means employees have to spend more time per traveler. Global Entry processing is mostly done by machine, and suspending that meant processing passengers by employees instead.
Global Entry kiosks were shut down at Newark.
In San Francisco it was reported that kiosks were closed but Global Entry passengers were being processed by an officer. The airport reported that Global Entry was actually open.
TSA Precheck and Global Entry remain operational at SFO this morning.
— San Francisco International Airport (SFO) ✈️ (@flySFO) February 22, 2026
Global Entry was closed in Atlanta and at New York JFK terminal 8 but reported open in Detroit. Global Entry was suspended at U.S. Preclearance in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary.
Here’s a Global Entry machine shown as shut down for maintenance at Washington Dulles:
Global entry closed due to DHS funding.
by
u/cyabits in
GlobalEntry
Not only was Global Entry closed in Miami, but Mobile Passport Control was also. Here’s what immigration queues looked like in Miami:
There are literally thousands of people in a line that reaches miles at MIA right now. Do the right thing and reopen Global Entry, which actually uses fewer resources to process more people. This is nothing more than a political stunt. @garyleff pic.twitter.com/rR40upHsWG
— Lucas Wiseman (@Lucas_Wiseman) February 23, 2026
If this goes on for more than a few days it will depress inbound travel.
- Citizens of nearly 20 countries are eligible for U.S. Global Entry, suchas Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Mexico, Germany, India, South Korea and the U.K.
- Pushing Global Entry-eligible travelers into regular queues will back up those queues.
Already, as international tourist arrivals rose worldwide in 2025 by about 4%, U.S. foreign visits were down 6% (and spending down 7%). The U.S. was reportedly the only economy with an absolute decline in visitor spending last year. And greater border friction stories of long lines and disruptions reinforce a narrative not to bother with travel to the U.S., which has an affect at the margin.
This is a self-own on the administration’s trade priorities. Each 1% drop in international visitor spending translates to $1.8 billion less export revenue per year.
A 7% drop in foreign visitor spending implies roughly $12.6 billion less export revenue. As a sanity check that’s consistent with World Travel and Tourism Council estimates of a $12.5 billion decline.
U.S. Travel also estimates 7.6 travel jobs per $1 million in international inbound travel spending. A $12.5 billion drop in spending would affect 95,000 direct jobs. They forecase that inbound travel declines push the travel trade deficit toward $70 billion.
Now, there’s a lot of assumptions built into U.S. Travel’s economic modeling here and a presumed bias towards estimating the impact of travel on the economic on the high side. It’s useful for some back of the envelope order of magnitude sorts of estimations, but I wouldn’t overrely on the specific numbers. The point is simply to illustrate that depressing travel is harmful to the economy, that’s already happening, and it undermines the administration’s overall economic and trade goals (and the trade goals are ostensibly economic strategic!).
Cutting off Global Entry is also bad for the administration’s immigration goals. That’s because Global Entry is meant to focus staffing resources on the highest risk arrivals. By spending less time on travelers who have already been vetted, agents can spend more time vetting others. That’s what this administration especially wants! And it’s exactly what’s undermined by pushing all travelers through standard immigration processes.
ICE Barbie needs to go back to South Dakota. Maybe she can fit Hegseth in her carryon and we’ll be rid of two incompetent cabinet secretaries.
Applicants to GE go through background checks. Another example of stupid government.
It’s funny, I came back through IAD a couple of weeks ago from LHR and several of those Global Entry machines were down for maintenance – looks like they just slapped a political message on top of them about DHS funding. So ….
GE and PreCheck should be like passports, funded by fees, so, not shut down, but that’d be too logical…
Those with Global Entry should demand a refund from the US Government for not being able to use it during the period of the shut down.
Noem is a complete disappointment. She has proved her incompetence.
As I said yesterday this is being done to create a difficulty for better off people. Then this administration will blame the Democrats and try to direct the anger at them. “They made us shut it down” is sort of like, “She made me so mad that I had to hit her”. Creating problems and saying you are the only one who can solve them is an old trick.
@drrichard — A tale as old as time. Bad faith tactics. DARVO. Two Santas. The issue is that right wing propaganda and consolidation of media ownership means that the truth isn’t reality, it’s whatever they say it is. Hopefully, we overcome this all soon enough. 252 days until the midterms. Overdue for real oversight and actual accountability.
At the end of the day, the real issue is that DHS has been shut down since Feb. 14 after SENATE DEMOCRATS blocked the agency’s funding. That is an indisputable point of fact. All of this goes away once Senate Democrats cease holding the rest of the coutry hostage. If you’re pissed as a traveler, I suggest that you take it out on them.
@TexasTJ — I guess we’ll do this all again. Ready? From your Dear Leader: ‘A shutdown means the President is weak…’ the party in-power gets blamed… blah, blah, blah…
Hi Gary,
Why would there be “fewer staffing resources (because of agents now showing up for work)”? I think the thing that’s missing here is that ICE and CBP were paid during the fall shutdown and can continue to be paid during this shutdown. OBBA appropriations to ICE and CBP are more flexible than they seem, and the appropriation for CBP personnel is more than enough to bridge the payroll gap during a general DHS appropriations lapse, especially since that money will be replenished when funding is restored.
Public reporting states Noem paid CBPOs during the last shutdown using OBBA funds, and if she does not pay them during this shutdown, that is a choice. That so many CBP personnel are on reassignment to interior immigration enforcement activities adds another wrinkle: Is she really not going to pay CBPOs and Border Patrol agents doing interior enforcement while the ICE ERO colleagues they work alongside continue to be paid? If she does pay them, is she really going to pay some CBPOs while those who remain posted at POEs go unpaid? The answer to both of these questions is almost definitely “no”, and if it is yes, that is a political choice that Noem is making.
Which might be the actual goal.
@1900 Pre-Check and Global Entry ARE covered by fees. And this is what is so stupid about this.
Everyone who has one or both pay for the service. So, you punish those who help fund the TSA and ICE. We have some smart people making decisions these days.
Questions if anyone knows:
1. How is this impacting Clear?
2. How is this impacting NEXUS?
fascist government at work.. doesn’t care about the people, but they do care if a cabinet member gets her taxpayer funded $70million personal jet.
@ texasTJ, it takes 2 to tango.. and it’s not the Dems that are run by a demented wannabe king