ATLANTA, Georgia: American air travelers believe that the only way out of the long queues for security checks now being seen at airports across the country is to pay Transportation Security Administration employees their salaries.

TSA officers have not received their paychecks since February 14, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security partly shut down.

Democrats refused to approve funding for the agency and asked for changes in how federal agents enforce immigration laws. Other government departments are not affected. This comes after the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.

"Everybody got bills they have to pay, and it's horrible," said Patrice Clark, whose trip to Las Vegas began on March 21 with a nearly four-hour wait in a security line at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. "Times are hard for everybody at this point. Working and not getting paid, and gas prices are extremely high — like everybody needs their money. They need to pay them."

Christian Childress, a private flight attendant, usually avoids TSA lines while working. But when he travels on regular commercial flights to reach his job, he still has to go through security checkpoints.

He said the effects of the government shutdown have been inconsistent. For example, he arrived at Atlanta airport nearly three hours before his Saturday afternoon flight to Nashville for a personal trip. Many passengers are arriving even earlier than usual at Atlanta—one of the world's busiest airports—because they are worried about delays and missing flights.

Childress said the top priority should be paying workers and keeping air travel safe, and that political debates can come later.

Some travelers believe Democrats should stop holding up the process. Tyrone Williams, a retired man from Ellenwood, near Atlanta, said he doesn't want to take sides but feels Democrats are delaying things because they aren't getting what they want.

Wait times at Atlanta airport security reached up to 90 minutes on the morning of March 21, but later dropped to almost nothing in the afternoon, which is usually a slow travel day. Staff shortages have forced some airports to close checkpoints at times, causing wait times to change quickly.

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said that, starting March 23, he would order federal immigration officers to help with airport security unless Democrats agree to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

He also said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would expand immigration enforcement to airports, arresting undocumented immigrants, especially those from Somalia.

A bill to fund the entire department failed to move forward in the Senate on March 20 because Democrats did not support it. The Senate also rejected a Democratic proposal to fund only the TSA. Republicans say the entire department must be funded, not just parts of it.

Most TSA workers are considered essential, and about 50,000 are still working without pay during the shutdown. On March 19, about 10 percent of TSA officers nationwide did not show up for work, with even higher absence rates in some areas.

Union leaders and officials say TSA workers are under financial stress. In the past 171 days, airport security staff have had delayed pay for nearly half that time due to political issues—43 days during last year's longest shutdown, four days earlier this year, and now 36 days and counting.

Since this shutdown began, at least 376 TSA officers have quit, adding to the agency's already high turnover and low morale.