U.S. air travelers praise ICE agents for helping to ease nightmare lines at U.S. airports

U.S. air traveler.

ICE agents began their deployments to more than a dozen airports on Monday, and had an almost immediate impact on the long security lines that have made air travel in the U.S. a nightmare over the last nearly four weeks since the partial government shutdown began.

Democrats in Congress have refused to approve funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the TSA. As a result, TSA officers haven't been paid in almost a month, and scores of them have called out of work while many others have quit altogether. Due to staffing shortages, some wait times to get through security have taken as long as four or five hours at airports around the U.S. 

On Monday, President Trump sent ICE agents to help with security lines at 14 major airports throughout the country, CBS News reported. Trump said the idea to deploy ICE to help deal with airport security was his. The impacts were almost immediate. Airports that had been snarled by staffing shortages and long lines saw wait times reduced to as little as 40 minutes in some cases, as CNN (of all places), reported was the case in Atlanta. 

Results were even better elsewhere. As Florida's Voice News reporter Kennedy Faith showed viewers, after ICE agents arrived at Southwest Florida Airport, the TSA lines that existed were eased at various points on Monday afternoon, wait times had been reduced to zero. 

At Hartsfield-Jackson International airport in Atlanta, Madison Scarpino of Fox News caught up with some air travelers and asked about their experience moving through security with ICE agents assisting TSA officers. 

"I was concerned," one woman admitted, "but they're not bothering us, so let's get it done." 

"I like that they're here," a man told Fox News. "It's allowing us to move and get to where we need to go."  

As the government approaches the one-month mark, some are eyeing Friday, March 27, as a possible end to the shutdown because that will be the second full paycheck that TSA workers will miss, and both chambers of Congress will be out of session for the following two weeks. Below, watch more from the Fox News report highlighting U.S. travelers moving through airports where ICE agents are now assisting.