U.S. AIRPORTS — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were deployed to 14 major U.S. airports to help address security gaps caused by Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages during the partial government shutdown, and those agents are set to remain at many airports across the country. Approximately 500 TSA agents have left their jobs since the shutdown began in mid-February, and increased absenteeism among remaining workers has caused travelers to face multi-hour lines at airport security checkpoints for over a month.

Tom Homan, the White House's border czar, described the duties that ICE agents have been carrying out at the affected airports. "They have been protecting the exit lanes, doing identification checks, and plugging the security holes," Homan said.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that "Deploying ICE officers to airports was critical in helping Americans travel across the country." DHS also said that TSA agents should receive their pay as early as Monday, following an executive order that President Donald Trump signed on Friday directing that the agents be compensated.

Staffing shortages produced delays at some of the nation's busiest airports in the weeks since the shutdown took effect. At Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, security checkpoint wait times at one point reached four hours. By Monday morning, according to the airport's website, those wait times had dropped to up to 60 minutes. At New York's JFK Airport on Monday, security checkpoint wait times exceeded 30 minutes.

The Association of Flight Attendants created an online form for its members to report incidents of ICE agents performing tasks outside their training, including screening passengers and baggage.

The legislative path to ending the shutdown remained uncertain as of Monday. The U.S. Senate approved a deal early on Friday to fund DHS, but Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives rejected the agreement. Without a funding resolution in place, ICE agents were expected to continue operating at the airports as TSA worked to restore its workforce.