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Travelers at American airports breathed a sigh of relief on Monday as they encountered markedly shorter security lines. This improvement followed the resumption of backpay for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers, who had been working without pay due to a partial government shutdown.
Over the weekend, passengers at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport faced security lines extending up to four hours. By Monday, however, the wait times had dramatically decreased to ten minutes or even less. Similar improvements were reported at other previously congested locations like Baltimore-Washington International Airport and Atlanta, where travelers experienced a smoother passage through TSA checkpoints.
The significant reduction in wait times coincided with TSA employees receiving paychecks for the weeks they had worked without compensation. These paychecks came after Congress failed to renew funding for the Department of Homeland Security by February 14, leaving approximately 61,000 TSA workers without pay since January 31.
The absence of pay led to over 500 agents resigning, while many others called out from work. This staffing issue arose amid a surge in school spring-break travel, which saw about a five percent increase in volume compared to the previous year.
More than 500 agents have since quit their jobs, while thousands more called out from work, amid a school spring-break travel surge with about five percent higher volume than last year’s.
On Friday alone, more than one-third of security agents failed to show up for work at New York’s John F Kennedy Airport, at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Nearly half of all TSA workers also refused to show up to work on Friday at Houston’s two airports, as TSA absences hit a high of 12.4 percent of all employees, amounting to 3,560 workers, not showing up for their shifts.
Amid the staffing shortage, Trump ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to provide security at 14 airports. He then signed an executive action to restart payments on Friday, as Congress went on a two-week recess.
Passengers flying through American airports found significantly shorter security lines. Travelers are pictured here walking through the security lines at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas on Monday
The lines at George Bush Intercontinental Airport lasted just 10 minutes on Monday
Tha tmarked a major improvement from Sunday, when security lines stretched out the door
By Monday, most TSA officers started to receive a retroactive paycheck that included at least two full two-week paychecks, DHS announced.
The rest of the money is expected sometime next week, according to Johnny Jones, secretary-treasure of the TSA chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees.
Some workers have also reported incorrect backpay amounts, including missing overtime, he noted.
But for Andrea Connolly and her husband, who both work at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, the paycheck on Monday was a ‘relief.’
She told 12 News it was a ‘huge weight’ that has been lifted off of her family, after they were struggling to afford basic necessities, including gas to get to work, and worried about keeping up with their mortgage and feeding themselves and their dogs.
‘Every time this happens, there’s a sense of gloom,’ Connolly said, but now, ‘We are happy and our dog children are happy.’
Still, some TSA agents continue to struggle.
Jones, who works as a TSA agent at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, said one colleague told him his bank account was already ‘back to zero’ after covering his car and housing payments and late fees.
The lines were almost non-existent at Baltimore-Washington International Airport on Monday
The improvements came as TSA employees started to receive backpay for the hours they worked since funding lapsed for the Department of Homeland Security
Nearly half of all TSA workers also refused to show up to work on Friday at Houston’s two airports, as TSA absences hit a high of 12.4 percent of all employees, amounting to 3,560 workers, not showing up for their shifts
The workers were only just beginning to recover financially from last fall’s extended government shutdown, he noted.
Now, workers are relieved that the money has arrived, but worry that it will once again disappear, Jones claimed.
‘None of my colleagues feel like they´ve been made whole,’ he said. ‘Their finances are destroyed.’
The union said the TSA updated its furlough policy on Sunday, removing guidance that allowed officers to request a furlough if they could not report to work for reasons tied to the shutdown, such as lack of transportation or child care.
‘Working without pay forced more than 500 officers to leave TSA and thousands were forced to call out,’ acting TSA Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in announcing the delayed payday.
The union agreed with these numbers, but said those who could not afford to report for duty now ‘have disciplinary actions looming over their heads.’
‘Backpay alone does not fix those problems,’ the union said.
President Donald Trump deployed Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents to major airports to help alleviate the long lines
An ICE agent is seen assisting travelers through security at BWI Airport on Monday
Yet it at least seemed to help with the security lines, with passengers who arrived hours early at airports across the country finding they did not have to wait as long as they feared.
‘We were running out the door to get here,’ Lynn Desrosiers told The New York Times about her and Adam Coleman’s morning as they raced to get to Baltimore-Washington International Airport four hours before their scheduled flight to Orlando, Florida.
‘Looks like we’re going to spend a lot of money on candy, maybe take a few naps.’
Meanwhile at Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, which currently ranks as the world’s busiest airport, passengers were spending just three to five minutes passing through the security lines, showing their identification and heading to luggage screening on Monday morning.
For Ron Woods, who showed up to the airport on Monday to check out the lines in an effort to decide when he should arrive for his planned trip to Houston, Texas on Wednesday, the short lines were a major surprise.
‘What happened to these lines? They disappeared,’ he told a passerby.
At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, passengers on Monday also zipped through a maze of yellow caution tape and orange traffic cones left over from the hours-long lines that persisted just a few days earlier.
Jeff Badders, 69, and Kerry Pruitt, 62, said they arrived at the airport more than six hours early for their flight to Africa for a hunting trip.
The two applauded Trump for signing the executive order paying TSA agents.
‘If Congress can’t get done what needs to be done, we’re glad that the president rose above politics to pay people who need a paycheck,’ Badders said.
Travelers reported waiting up to four hours at checkpoints over the weekend. Travelers are pictured wait in a long security line at Terminal B at LaGuardia on Friday
Passengers were seen waiting in a TSA security checkpoint line that stretched through BWI on Sunday
Airline passengers made their way through the security lines, next to a closed screening area, in Terminal C at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Sunday
His remarks came as there were few signs that Democrats and Republicans would reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, as senators held a short session without considering a House bill to restore funding, then resumed their two-week long break.
President Trump has previously also rejected bipartisan efforts to fund the TSA amid negotiations over ICE operations with Democrats, who have refused to approve more funding without restraints on Trump’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation efforts following the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
They are demanding that ICE agents wear cameras, identify themselves and operate without masks. They also want judges to decide whether to issue their warrants, and they want ICE raids to avoid schools, churches or other sensitive places.
But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that ‘there has not been a change in policy.’
‘It has always been the policy of this president and this administration to deport the worst of the worst illegal alien criminals,’ she said, as she announced that Trump offered to host an Easter dinner for members of Congress who return to resolve the impasse.
Leavitt also said Trump wants Congress to return to Washington immediately to pass legislation to fully fund the Homeland Security Department.
In the meantime, ICE agents will continue to check passenger’s IDs, patrol airports and direct traffic until operations return to normal.
As for the ICE agents Trump deployed to some airports a week ago to help with security, White House border czar Tom Homan said how long they help out checking IDs, patrolling and directing traffic depends on how quickly TSA employees return to work.