IRVING, Texas — All eyes will be on the White House on Saturday after President Donald Trump announced Friday evening that he will be making a major announcement regarding the southern U.S. border and the government shutdown.
As of Friday night, it's been 28 days since the government closed its doors.
An estimated 800,000 federal workers have been either furloughed or must continue working without pay.
The government shut down on December 22 of last year after President Trump's campaign promise to build a wall along the Mexico border was thrown into jeopardy.
President Trump wanted more than $5 billion to start construction of the wall, but Democrats wouldn't budge.
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Trump has since traded political jabs with leaders of the Democratic Pary such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, leading the public to devise their own guesses as to when a compromise might be struck.
One of the main agencies drained by the shutdown is the Transportation Security Administration.
TSA officers are considered essential workers and must continue to work at airports without pay until the shutdown ends.
It's a complicated situation to be in when you consider non-essential furloughed workers have an option to pick up a job during the shutdown to make ends meet.
With every furloughed worker tightening their budgets and facing tough decisions regarding bills, the TSA has seen an increase in unscheduled absences.
Earlier this week, TSA said that it had experienced a national rate of 6.8 percent of unscheduled absences when that rate compared to the same time last year was only 2.5 percent.
For Sandra Felix, an 11-year worker for the TSA, the shutdown has stretched her wallet thin.
"It's like barely keeping your head above water," Felix said.
Felix works at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. She said that the mood in her TSA line changes daily, but said that a lot of her cohorts are growing weary.
"It's a lot to handle. You have so many different circumstances that you have to pay attention to there, 'not on my watch' you know? It requires a lot of mental focus," Felix said.
"Add in the no paycheck, and it's exhausting."
Felix is a single mom with two kids. They all live in a small apartment in Irving, a place that Felix was hoping to move out of before the shutdown.
"I was trying to build up credit, so I could soon get into a home but it's just backpedaling now," Felix said. "I'm calling a lot of creditors asking if I can extend the due date for my bills."
To top it off, Felix is also taking care of her mother right now. She was recently hospitalized in Burleson after contracting gangrene in St. Croix, which is where Felix is from.
She spent the last few weeks getting her parents to America so her mother could be treated. To make things worse, doctors recently had to amputate one of her mother's toes.
"The timing could not have been worse, I don't have the ability to help them financially you know," Felix said.
Felix is also a union steward for the American Federation of Government Employees, so she hears a lot of complaints from her peers.
A common question, she said that she was asked, is if TSA supervisors can force people to work.
Leaving her to believe that some may have been intimidated to show up in uniform.
"Other officers are like, 'I already started putting applications into places' and now it's stuck in my head like 'Sandra, I think it's time to start fixing your resume,'" Felix said.
But that's the hard part.
When you're a longtime employee like Felix, with a pension on the line, there's no other choice but to stick it out.
"I'm an optimistic person, and I can't quit. I've already made it this far," Felix said.
Of all the things keeping her going, Felix said it's the gratitude of passengers right now.
"Everyone is just so grateful you know, they say 'thank you' and are apologetic saying 'we know this isn't your fault, thank you for being here,'" Felix said.
"When you hear that, it just feels that much rewarding to say ok...let's keep going."
Think about that for a second, a single mom who has given 11 years of her life to the TSA is living off of compliments...not a pay stub.