The ongoing ripple effects of the DHS/TSA funding crisis are spilling into student and campus-adjacent travel operations, including where institutions rely on domestic travel for conferences, recruitment, and visiting scholars. Reporting describes how ICE officers were deployed at airports to ease security lines while TSA staffing strains persist. Even after an executive order directed immediate pay for TSA officers, airports continued warning travelers to arrive earlier, and the length of the ICE deployment was linked to whether TSA callouts returned to normal staffing levels and how many TSA employees remain quit. For higher education institutions, the administrative consequence is operational: travel planning uncertainty and extended delays can compound recruitment schedules, research collaborations, and international programs’ domestic logistics. The episode underscores how federal workforce disruptions can become a sector-wide planning risk far beyond government offices.