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Threat to suspend Precheck, Global Entry smacks of desperation

The Department of Homeland Security announced this week that it would be suspending the Transportation Security Administration’s PreCheck program for domestic travelers and Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry for international travelers while the partial government shutdown remains in effect. Just hours later, Homeland Security reversed itself on PreCheck.

It would be wise to backtrack on suspending Global Entry as well.   

Decisions like this make the air system less secure. It is also characteristic of how dysfunctional the department has become, and how the agency no longer protects the American people but acts as a political pawn within a toxic administration. 

Travelers pay to participate in both PreCheck and Global Entry — key components of Homeland Security’s Trusted Traveler programs that use risk-based analytics to deliver high levels of security with minimal inconvenience to travelers. Participants voluntarily subject themselves to background checks and provide their fingerprints and photos. In exchange, they gain access to PreCheck lanes at domestic airport security, allowing for expedited screening. These lanes also require less expensive security screening equipment (walk-through metal detectors versus millimeter wave advanced imaging technologies, or full-body scanners) and fewer TSA officers to deliver a comparable level of security for the air system. 

Global Entry permits travelers entering the U.S. from foreign countries to have their identities validated using biometrics, which expedites their entry back into the U.S. They, too, permit entry ports to operate more efficiently, with fewer customs officers required to handle a higher volume of entering travelers.

By suspending either of these programs, Homeland Security — or, perhaps more accurately, the higher-ups in the administration — hopes to put pressure on Democrats to to fund the Homeland Security appropriations bill. Yet in making such a politically driven decision, the department is certain to make more enemies than allies.

Suspending either of these programs hurts the department as much as travelers, by placing unnecessary staffing pressure at airport security screening checkpoints and customs ports of entry operations. The net effect is not only less efficient service but higher costs to taxpayers. TSA Precheck has been estimated to save the government $110 million annually. More importantly, TSA Precheck makes the air system more secure for all travelers by better aligning security resources with passenger risks.

The Trump administration acted in a similar manner during the 43-day partial government shutdown that began Oct. 1, 2025. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy mandated reduction of air traffic at the largest airports around the nation in the name of safety. In so doing, he politicized a government service, even though such uniform reductions were unnecessary. After the congressional standoff ended, the Federal Aviation Administration announced bonuses for those air traffic controllers who had not missed work during the shutdown; some air traffic controllers rejected the offer as insulting, demonstrating their professionalism and commitment to safety.

Though the stalled appropriations bill is driven by conflicts between the two parties on how Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are executing their responsibilities in cities around the nation, ICE operations are immune from the effects of the shutdown. TSA, the Coast Guard and FEMA are not.  

The very fact that Homeland Security felt it necessary to float suspending PreCheck and Global Entry is symptomatic of how weak their position is. Given that ICE received $75 billion beyond its annual appropriation in the One Big Beautiful Bill, ample funds exist within Homeland Security to support TSA and all the other agencies within the department. But this would require a reallocation of funds within the department, which would necessarily reduce ICE operations — something the administration would not welcome. 

Any time vital government services are threatened by political pressures, it is symptomatic of a desperate administration. If the party in power is in the right, a pathway for compromise would be obvious. When those in power are in a weak position, they are forced to threaten draconian actions to support their position. Labeling the current shutdown as Democrats’ fault misrepresents the situation, given that both parties have the power to end it any time they choose.

The current partial shutdown will not end with vapid threats. It will end when the two parties come together and work in the best interest of the public. Suspending effective programs like TSA PreCheck and Global Entry is inappropriate — it will cause more harm than good for all and are threaten our national security, in direct contradiction to the department’s mission.     

Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a professor of computer science in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has researched risk-based aviation security for over 25 years, which provided the technical justification for TSA PreCheck.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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