U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were present at O'Hare Airport on Monday after the Trump administration said agents would help short-staffed airport security personnel nationwide amid the ongoing partial government shutdown.At least half a dozen agents in ICE gear were seen at Term inals 1, 2 and 3 late Monday morning.President Donald Trump made clear Sunday that he would deploy ICE agents at airports across the country to assist the Transportation Security Administration's security operations. Trump blamed TSA staffing issues, which have resulted in occasional long security lines, on Democrats for not agreeing on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.O’Hare was among 14 airports where ICE agents were set to be deployed, according to CNN.About 75 ICE agents were expected to be stationed at O’Hare, according to sources familiar with the plan. They were monitoring exit lanes and checkpoints, not performing security screenings.Agents spotted at O'Hare on Monday by a Sun-Times reporter were mostly wearing face masks, against the wishes of Trump, who said he prefers them to not wear masks."I am a BIG proponent of ICE wearing masks as they search for, and are forced to deal with, hardened criminals," Trump wrote Monday on social media, adding, "I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports, etc."Gov. JB Pritzker said the deployment of ICE agents to airports is causing "causing chaos and instilling fear.""It’s time to get our nation’s airports back on track now," Pritzker said in a social media post.Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement Monday that his office is using "every tool we have to ensure that people, no matter their immigration status, can travel to and from Chicago safely and without harassment from the federal government."U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García said ICE agents in airports "is not making travelers safer or addressing long security lines."Instead, this unprecedented action is making people afraid to go to the airport, and causing confusion and violence, like the incident in San Francisco last night," García said, referring to ICE agents arresting a woman and her daughter Sunday at San Francisco Airport.Some O’Hare travelers say ICE doesn’t belong in the airportLuke Hoover and Mary Dickey, of North Center, braced for long security lines and showed up three hours early for their flight to New Zealand for their honeymoon.The couple, like several people who spoke to the Sun-Times and WBEZ on Monday, said the presence of ICE agents gave them pause.We're "not a big fan of it," Hoover said."Just [the] TSA process alone, having people who aren’t trained in the process trying to ... expedite the process, just doesn’t make sense to me," Dickey said. An ICE agent checks his phone while standing guard at the exit point of the arrivals area in Terminal 1 at O’Hare Airport on Monday.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times Abdul Qahar Karimi, 27, said he saw two armed ICE agents as he exited his flight to Chicago from Omaha, Nebraska. Karimi, a truck driver in town for work, said he has green card-holding friends who were detained in Omaha.Though the agents didn’t make Karimi feel any less safe, he said he still prefers they be away from airports."They shouldn’t be here because the airport itself has its own security, their own police," Karimi said.Trump teases possible Guard deployment at airportsTrump on Monday said he would consider calling in the National Guard to assist with security at airports."I want to thank ICE because they stepped in so, so strongly. They'll do great. And if that's not enough, I'll bring in the National Guard," Trump said.The National Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, White House border czar Tom Homan said Monday that he expected the agents to be met by protests."We're going to first send out to the biggest airports with the biggest wait lines," Homan said on Chris Cuomo’s SiriusXM show.When asked if that meant he was already preparing for protests, Homan responded, "I'm sure there will be. You know in the bigger cities where there's been issues in the past, I expect there's going to be protests outside the airport.”The Sun-Times spotted no protesters at O'Hare on Monday. Travelers wait in a long security line in Terminal 1 at O’Hare Airport on Monday.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times No agents spotted at MidwayNo ICE agents were spotted at Midway, but some travelers still felt impacted.Anayeli Castro was waiting for her husband by the security check point with her two young kids. She had heard online that they should arrive at least four hours early. But when she checked the TSA app to see how long the security line was, the app was not updating the wait time.“I'm here three hours before, luckily the lines are not long right now,” Castro said. “We normally arrive two hours early, but I when heard you have to be here four to five hours early, I was freaking out.”Castro said she was worried about ICE agents being stationed at airports.“They're ICE agents. It's different from TSA, so it does kind of freak you out a little bit," Castro said. “I am an immigrant, so it's scary.”On Sunday, TSA union officials told the Sun-Times that they have concerns about ICE agents working at airports. There is a danger, one of them said, due to the agents’ lack of training regarding aviation security.Lori Houzer, following instructions, arrived at Midway more than three hours before her flight to Canada on Monday. But she was so early that there was no staff to check in her bags.“I would have arrived, max, two hours early if I'm checking luggage, which is more than enough time, sometimes an hour and a half,” she said. “Now it's at least two hours more. And that's if things go well,” she said.Houzer said TSA agents ought to be paid because it keeps them motivated.“It's a security job," she said. "I would like people to take it seriously."Contributing: Violet Miller, Alex Degman, Kade Heather, Mitchell Armentrout ...read more read less