TSA officers are expected to receive their first paychecks since the partial government shutdown began weeks ago.<\/p>\n
President Trump signed an executive order last week that orders the Dept. of Homeland Security to pay the employees. But it may be a while before travelers could start seeing relief at airports.<\/p>\n
While things appeared to run smoothly at LaGuardia Airport Sunday afternoon, there were some delays and cancellations. However, security lines appeared to be moving much faster than on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
But even with pay coming to TSA employees, it might take days — or even weeks — for things to go back to normal.<\/p>\n
“I have five hour wait now,” a traveler to Canada named “Debbie” told NBC New York, as she endured a long wait at LaGuardia. “We were dropped off earlier in case there was a long lineup to clear the gate.”<\/p>\n
She wasn’t the only flier surprised. “Nice to see that it’s not really that crazy as we have thought,” Virgie Baden said. Her grandaughter is traveling. But things were different just hours earlier.<\/p>\n
“They basically told us to go probably like half a mile down, turn all the way around, and come back up here,” said Natasha Striggles. “And it’s looking like we might not make it.”<\/p>\n
TSA officers are expected to begin seeing their paychecks as early as Monday.<\/p>\n
But Rebecca Wolf, a TSA officer and president of the AFGE TSA Local 1127 union, said, “We have not heard anything. We were just told that we would be receiving our back pay and that everybody needed to be at work on their next scheduled work day.”<\/p>\n
More than 3,500 TSA employees called out sick natiownide on Friday<\/p>\n
“They need to hurry and pay these people,” said Striggles. “They need to pay them.”<\/p>\n
White House Border Czar Tom Homan said Sunday that ICE agents would remain at airports until TSA is back to normal.<\/p>\n