The partial shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security entered its fourth consecutive week on Saturday with no clear resolution in sight, as TSA callout rates at some of the nation’s busiest airports exceeded 40 percent, generating significant flight delays, security checkpoint backlogs, and growing public frustration.

The funding impasse began on February 14 when Democratic lawmakers in both chambers declined to support a continuing resolution that included DHS appropriations, citing their outrage over the deaths of three people during federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis earlier that month. The administration had refused to accept any modifications to its immigration enforcement policies as a condition for the department’s funding.

TSA officers, who are required by law to work without pay during the shutdown, were increasingly calling in sick or taking other forms of leave, citing financial hardship, family stress, and morale collapse. At Chicago O’Hare, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, and Los Angeles International Airport, checkpoint staffing had dropped to levels that created waits of two hours or more for passengers who had arrived at what were previously considered reasonable times before their flights.

The agency’s acting administrator testified before a Senate subcommittee on Friday that the situation was rapidly reaching a breaking point. She described officers facing eviction notices, difficulty paying for childcare, and in some cases struggling to afford food for their families. She pleaded for emergency funding legislation to be passed as quickly as possible.

Airline representatives and airport authorities had been increasingly vocal about the operational disruptions. Several carriers issued advisories urging passengers to arrive earlier than usual and warned that flight delays and cancellations caused by understaffed checkpoints could affect connecting itineraries across their networks.

Tourism and hospitality industry groups estimated that the checkpoint delays were already costing the travel sector hundreds of millions of dollars per week in lost bookings, rerouted itineraries, and productivity losses from delayed business travelers. They called on Congress to resolve the impasse regardless of the underlying immigration policy dispute.

Congressional leaders from both parties acknowledged the humanitarian and operational dimensions of the crisis but remained unable to agree on a path forward. Republicans insisted that the shutdown was entirely the result of Democratic obstruction of legitimate border security funding. Democrats countered that the administration’s refusal to address the Minneapolis incident made any clean funding bill politically impossible to support.

The situation had also begun affecting customs and immigration processing at major international airports, where staffing reductions were causing longer wait times for arriving international passengers. Several foreign governments had issued advisories to their citizens traveling to the United States warning of possible delays.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the administration was exploring all available legal options to accelerate the return of TSA workers to their posts, but said the fundamental solution required Congress to act. He declined to specify what legal options were being considered.

Passenger advocacy groups were calling for emergency legislation that would fund the TSA as a standalone measure, bypassing the larger DHS appropriations dispute entirely. Several moderates from both parties were said to be exploring whether such an approach could command sufficient votes, but no concrete proposal had been formally introduced as of Saturday.