US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have deployed to major airports across the country, helping to fill the void as thousands of security staff who are going without pay refuse to work.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees are increasingly absent, having not received pay in weeks due to a partial government shutdown that began on 14 February.
Their absence has created huge queues and hours-long wait times at airport security checkpoints. More than 3,400 TSA agents called out of work on Sunday.
On Monday, White House border tsar Tom Homan said hundreds of ICE agents had been deployed to 14 airports in cities including New York, Atlanta and Houston.
Photos of the agents showed them at New York's John F Kennedy airport and Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta, Georgia, among others.
