Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

The New York Times [3/23/2026 8:30 PM, Madeleine Ngo, 148038K] reports the Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin as homeland security secretary on Monday, installing a Trump loyalist to head the agency responsible for carrying out immigration enforcement at a time when it is reeling from dimming public opinion. Mr. Mullin, 48, was confirmed in a 54-to-45 vote. Nearly all Republicans and two Democrats voted in support of his nomination. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, broke from his party and opposed Mr. Mullin after clashing with him at his confirmation hearing last week. Mr. Mullin secured support from Senators John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, both Democrats. Mr. Mullin, a Cherokee Nation member who was sworn in as Oklahoma’s junior senator in 2023, will take charge of the Homeland Security Department at a pivotal time. Recent polling has shown that Republicans’ advantage on immigration is shrinking and that most Americans believe that immigration agents have gone too far, especially after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January. Mr. Mullin will have to balance the task of mending the agency’s image while also delivering on President Trump’s signature campaign promise of mass deportations. He will also take the reins at a time when thousands of department employees are working without pay amid a partial government shutdown that has led to scenes of chaos at airports across the country. On Monday, Mr. Trump deployed more than 100 immigration agents to airports in an effort to ease long security lines as the ranks of Transportation Security Administration officers have thinned. The funding lapse is the result of a bitter partisan dispute over immigration enforcement. Lawmakers have failed to reach a deal to fully fund the Homeland Security Department — something Democrats have refused to do without imposing new restrictions on immigration agents. Republicans have cast the demands as excessive, saying they would impede law enforcement. The shutdown has had few consequences for immigration enforcement, however, because Republicans in Congress approved more than $170 billion for Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda last year. As homeland security secretary, Mr. Mullin will oversee the distribution of that huge infusion of funds. The White House is hoping that he will bring order to a department that had been at the center of a string of controversies under his ousted predecessor, Kristi Noem. At his confirmation hearing, Mr. Mullin made clear that he was committed to fulfilling the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. But he also tried to strike a more cooperative tone, saying that immigration officers would generally no longer enter homes without a judicial warrant under his leadership. And he said the department would foster closer relationships with jails, suggesting a move away from sweeping operations in Democratic-led cities and states. The Washington Post [3/23/2026 8:26 PM, Maria Sacchetti and Theodoric Meyer, 24826K] reports that the Senate confirmed Mullin, 48, two weeks after President Donald Trump nominated him to become the ninth DHS secretary. He is expected to be sworn in after Secretary Kristi L. Noem departs at the end of the month. Mullin has emphasized that he will continue Trump’s immigration agenda, but in a streamlined way targeting criminals and people eligible to be deported. In written answers to Senate questionnaires, he said he would work to improve morale and workforce readiness at DHS and build a department “that runs on systems, not personalities.” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the committee’s top Democrat, both opposed his nomination. Both said he lacked the temperament and qualifications to lead the agency when it is facing scrutiny for excessive use of force. “When the president nominated Senator Mullin to lead the department, I came into the process with an open mind. However, I do not believe that he is the right person for the job," Peters said. “We need a Secretary who is a steady leader, who won’t rush to judgment without having all the facts, and who won’t add fuel to the fire when there is a crisis.” NPR [3/23/2026 8:26 PM, Ximena Bustillo and Sam Gringlas, 28764K] reports that during his confirmation hearing, Mullin, 48, called on senators to fund DHS as quickly as possible and said he wanted to take on the responsibility of leading the sprawling agency. "I’m not scared of a challenge. I am scared of failure, and so I will work hard each day," Mullin said during the hearing. "My goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day. My goal is for people to understand we’re out there. We’re protecting them, and we’re working with them. My goal is to make every one of you guys proud.”

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AP [3/23/2026 8:50 PM, Staff, 35287K] Video: HERE
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Daily Wire [3/23/2026 8:57 PM, Cameron Arcand, 2314K] reports that a Democrat’s vote to move forward with the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security was considered a surprise, and it garnered some backlash on the Left. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) voted to allow Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to advance to the final step in the confirmation process to become the next DHS secretary, succeeding Secretary Kristi Noem. Heinrich and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) are the only two Democrats who voted in favor of Mullin, who’s expected to be confirmed later on Monday. "This is going to surprise some people, but I consider Markwayne Mullin a friend. We have a very honest and constructive working relationship. We have authored legislation together, such as the Tribal Buffalo Management Act, and we crafted the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill together this year. We often disagree and when we do, we work to find whatever common ground we share," Heinrich said in a statement on Sunday. "I have also seen first-hand that Markwayne is not someone who can simply be bullied into changing his views, and I look forward to having a Secretary who doesn’t take their orders from Stephen Miller," he said. The senator said that even though New Mexico is a border state, he has not had "any constructive relationship" with the DHS secretaries during the current and previous Trump administration.

New York Times [3/23/2026 8:53 PM, Michael Gold, 148038K] reports facing a phalanx of fellow senators who held his nomination as homeland security secretary in their hands, Markwayne Mullin sat on the opposite side of a dais at his confirmation hearing last week and offered a promise. “We’re going to work with you,” Mr. Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma and decade-long veteran of the House, told a Senate Democrat. “But most importantly, I think everybody on this dais has my personal cellphone. That cellphone isn’t going to change. And if you call me, you’re going to get a response. If you text me, you’re going to get a response.” In the end, Mr. Mullin’s vow, which he repeated a second time later in the hearing, did not win him broad bipartisan support at a time when the two parties are deeply divided over immigration enforcement under the department he is poised to lead. But it may have cleared the way for two Democrats to join all but one Republican to confirm him on Monday night, in a 54-to-45 vote. And whether they voted for him or not, senators from across the ideological spectrum suggested that they had been encouraged by a characteristic that has been notably lacking in most of President Trump’s other cabinet choices: Mr. Mullin is someone they know well and believe they can work with. Senator Martin Heinrich, one of two Democrats to cross party lines and support his confirmation, explained his vote by citing his working relationship with Mr. Mullin. In a statement, he said that he trusted that Mr. Mullin, whom he called a friend, would not “be bullied” by White House officials and that he would work with Congress more constructively than his predecessor, Kristi Noem. (Despite having served for eight years in the House, Ms. Noem did not enjoy the same kind of warm relationships with members of the Senate, particularly among Democrats, and came to be regarded by many members in both parties as unresponsive and ineffective.) “I would like a secretary who I can call and have a constructive conversation with,” Mr. Heinrich said. It remains to be seen whether that dynamic will hold, particularly as Mr. Mullin takes the reins of a department that oversees Mr. Trump’s divisive immigration enforcement policies. The Senate has been locked in a stalemate for more than a month over funding the Homeland Security Department. In private talks with a House Democrat, Mr. Mullin, who has carved out a role as a liaison between Congress and the White House, had been discussing concessions that went further than Mr. Trump’s team had been willing to in the talks. As secretary, he may be required to adopt a sterner posture toward compromise.

FOX News [3/23/2026 6:21 PM, Alec Schemmel, 37576K] reports a group giving a voice to victims impacted by illegal immigrant crime says that more than 300 families who have been the victim of weak border policies are urging members of Congress to support the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to serve as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. The American Border Story (TABS), which works to give a platform for those who have lost loved ones as the result of crimes committed by individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States, wrote a letter to GOP Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday, shortly before the Senate is expected vote to confirm Mullin. "For the families we represent, border security is not an abstract policy debate," TABS said in its Monday letter. "Senator Mullin has demonstrated a clear understanding of these stakes. Throughout his time in Congress, he has consistently engaged on issues related to border security, public safety, and the operational challenges facing federal and local authorities. Just as importantly, he has shown a willingness to listen directly to impacted families and elevate their concerns in policy discussions. We believe Senator Mullin would bring to the Department of Homeland Security strong leadership, practical experience, and a clear commitment to protecting American communities.” The group praised Mullin’s background, "coupled with his direct engagement on border-related issues," and said that the families they represent "are not focused on politics.” "They are focused on ensuring that no other family has to endure the same tragedy," the letter concluded, adding that their consensus is Mullin understands "that responsibility" and "the seriousness" that the role DHS Secretary demands. Should Mullin survive the final confirmation vote, he will replace DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who Trump fired following explosive hearings on the Hill and after the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti during immigration operations in Minnesota. He would take the reins of an agency that is currently shut down, as Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have blocked DHS funding five times in their quest to get stringent reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mullin has suggested he would be willing to put limits on some ICE activity, such as requiring a judicial warrant for the agency to go into houses, or places of business. "Judicial warrants will be used to go into houses, into place of businesses, unless we’re pursuing someone that enters in that place," Mullin said amid questions about his confirmation. "I have not mixed words with that, and I haven’t changed my opinion about that.”

Reuters [3/23/2026 5:13 PM, David Shepardson, Rich McKay and Andy Sullivan, 38315K] reports two pilots died in a runway accident that shut New York’s LaGuardia Airport and President Donald Trump deployed armed immigration agents to major ​airports on Monday as passengers endured hours-long lines in a system strained by personnel shortages. The crash between an Air Canada Express jet and a fire truck at ‌LaGuardia injured dozens of passengers and led to hundreds of flight cancellations at the start of the working week in the latest disruption for airports and carriers that have been knocked off-kilter by a weeks-long budget standoff in Congress. The crashed jet remained visible at the airport on Monday, its crushed cockpit pointing skyward. The two young pilots who died in the incident had just started their careers, said Bryan Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration. "It’s an ​absolute tragedy," he said at a news conference. Travelers have endured hours-long waits at security screening checkpoints in recent days as absentee rates have spiked among Transportation Security Administration ​employees who have gone without pay for more than a month. "If you work, you should get your money. Why should that be a problem?" ⁠said traveler Edwin Blain, 60, who showed up four hours early to avoid missing his flight at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, the nation’s busiest, where 42% of TSA agents were absent on Sunday. On Monday, ​U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wearing bulletproof vests and pistols stood guard in airports in Atlanta, New York and New Jersey, according to Reuters witnesses. They were not wearing the masks that ​have become a divisive symbol of Trump’s immigration crackdown and a subject of negotiations in Congress.

NewsMax [3/23/2026 1:44 PM, Jake Offenhartz, Jennifer Peltz, 3760K] reports an Air Canada jet carrying more than 70 passengers collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday, killing the pilot and copilot and injuring several others, officials said. The fire truck was crossing the tarmac just before midnight after being given permission to check on another plane reporting an odor onboard. Before the collision, an air traffic controller can be heard on airport communications frantically telling the fire truck to stop. Roughly 20 minutes later, the controller appears to blame himself. “We were dealing with an emergency earlier,” the controller said. “I messed up.” About 40 passengers and crew members on the regional jet from Montreal, and two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most were released by Monday morning, authorities said. The impact crushed the plane’s nose, leaving cables and debris dangling from the mangled cockpit. Images from the crash site showed the fire truck flipped onto its side, with most of the damage to its back half. A key for investigators will be examining coordination of the airport’s air traffic and ground traffic at the time of the crash, said Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation Inspector General. “I don’t know how many wake-up calls the (Federal Aviation Administration) needs, but this has been happening for years and sadly some of the most horrific air crashes in history happen on the ground at the airport.” The crash shut down LaGuardia — the New York region’s third busiest hub — until at least Monday afternoon, during what was already a messy time at U.S. airports because of a partial government shutdown. The AP [3/23/2026 10:36 PM, Philip Marcelo, 34146K] reports that the crash occurred around 11:45 p.m. on Sunday when an Air Canada regional jet arriving from Montreal struck an airport fire truck traveling across the runway to respond to a separate incident aboard another plane. According to air traffic control audio, the pilot of that other plane — United Flight 2384 — reported a “weird odor” was causing flight attendants to feel ill while the plane was waiting to take off. The pilot declared an emergency and requested to return to a gate and for firefighters to respond. Audio recordings from the airport control tower indicate the truck was initially cleared to cross the runway before a controller tried to pull it back to avoid a collision. The unnamed controller repeatedly told the vehicle to stop and diverted incoming aircraft from landing. He said later in the recording: “I messed up.” Photos and videos from the crash’s aftermath show the jet’s nose crushed and tilted upward, with debris hanging from the mangled cockpit. Stairways used to evacuate passengers were pushed up to the emergency exits and the damaged emergency vehicle lay on its side nearby. Weather at the time of the crash included moderate winds of about 7 knots and visibility of around 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) with mist and fog conditions, according to Bryan Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration. The pilot and copilot were the only confirmed fatalities of the roughly 70 passengers and four crew members on board the Jazz Aviation flight, which was operating on behalf of Air Canada. Their names have not been released by officials, but a family member identified one of them as Antoine Forest of Canada. About 40 passengers and crew members were also taken to area hospitals, some with serious injuries, the authority said. Most were released as of Monday morning. Two emergency responders traveling in the fire truck also suffered non-life-threatening injuries. One was expected to be released later Monday, while the other will spend another night in the hospital, according to Kathryn Garcia, head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport. Among the survivors was a flight attendant who was thrown from the plane while still strapped in her seat. Solange Tremblay suffered multiple fractures to her leg that require surgery but is miraculously OK, according to her daughter. LaGuardia was shut down following Sunday’s crash and all air traffic was diverted. It reopened Monday afternoon but with just one runway in operation and significant delays. The crash and temporary closure were the latest misery for U.S. airports struggling under a partial shutdown over government funding during the busy spring break season. Breitbart [3/24/2026 1:26 AM, Staff, 2238K] reports that after the crash of the Jazz Aviation flight operated on behalf of Air Canada, federal authorities issued a ground stop and the airport was closed until 2 p.m. Monday when operations resumed at the airport, according to LaGuardia Airport. The first plane departed LaGuardia at 2:08 p.m., according to air traffic monitoring website Flightradar24. Federal investigators were arriving at the site to begin their investigation into the cause of the crash on Monday, but not all had arrived by 6 p.m. when Jennifer Homedy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters during a press conference that the probe will take time. Runway 4, she said, will be closed for days as they photograph evidence and sift through debris that litters the area to understand what needs to be collected and returned to their labs in Washington, D.C. "There is a tremendous, tremendous amount of debris from the taxiway Delta, across Runway 4 and some other areas," she said. "It’s pretty expansive.” The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, known colloquially as black boxes, have been retrieved from the aircraft, and a NTSB employee had driven them back to Washington where the voice recorder was verified as undamaged, she said. With the tail of the aircraft down and its nose high in the air, Port Authority and emergency responders had to cut a hole into the jet’s roof so they could drop into the cockpit and retrieve the devices, she added. Work on the flight data recorder will begin tomorrow when she said she hopes to have more information to share. "We have a lot of data right now, a lot of information, including information on tower staffing, but the NTSB deals in facts. We don’t speculate," she said. "We don’t take one person at their word. We verify that information carefully before we provide it.” She added that the ongoing partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security and its Transportation Security Administration has impacted their investigation, stating an air traffic control specialist was in line with TSA for three hours. "We had to call Houston to beg to see if we can get her through," she said. "So, it’s been a really, a really big challenge to get the entire team here.”

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New York Times [3/24/2026 3:44 AM, Christopher Maag, 330K]
CNN [3/24/2026 12:30 AM, Zoe Sottile, 612K]

New York Times [3/23/2026 8:31 PM, Claire Fahy, 148038K] reports as Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages snarled airport operations across the country on Monday, specialists from the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency responsible for aviation safety, were among those caught in the long lines for security, the agency’s chairwoman said at a news conference. Jennifer Homendy, the N.T.S.B. chair, said long airport security lines caused by the Department of Homeland Security shutdown were one of several issues that delayed the start of her investigation at LaGuardia Airport. Ms. Homendy’s agency responded on Monday after an Air Canada plane collided with a fire truck shortly after it landed at LaGuardia late Sunday night. Other factors that delayed her team included LaGuardia’s closure until 2 p.m. because of the crash and a ground stop at Newark Liberty International Airport. “It’s been a really big challenge to get the entire team here, and they’re still arriving as I speak,” Ms. Homendy said. One of the agency’s air traffic control specialists was caught in a three-hour line for security at a Houston airport — Ms. Homendy did not specify which one — until the NTSB called “to beg to see if we can get her through, so we can get her here,” Ms. Homendy said. Investigators were continuing to arrive at LaGuardia by plane, train and automobile on Monday, Ms. Homendy added. She drove there with a team from Washington, D.C.

USA Today [3/23/2026 12:48 PM, Kate Perez, 70643K] reports air traffic control audio captured the dramatic radio traffic before and after an Air Canada Express jet collided with a fire truck on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport late on Sunday, March 22, an accident that killed two pilots and injured dozens of others. The Air Canada Express CRJ‑900, operated by Jazz Aviation, was arriving from Montreal with 72 passengers and four crew members on board when it collided with a Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle shortly before 11:40 p.m., according to airport officials. Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said at a news conference that the fire truck was responding to a separate incident involving a United Airlines flight that had reported an odor on board. Garcia said 41 passengers and crew members were transported to hospitals. Thirty‑two have since been released, while others remain hospitalized with serious injuries. Two Port Authority officers who were inside the fire truck were also injured and remain hospitalized with non‑life‑threatening injuries, she said. Minutes before the collision, air traffic control audio posted by LiveATC.net captured discussions about the United Airlines odor emergency, including controllers noting that emergency vehicles were already responding, Reuters reported. Additional recordings from before and after the crash document attempts by controllers to communicate with both the passenger jet and the fire truck in the moments leading up to the collision. Recorded air traffic audio from before and after the crash caught the moment air traffic controllers tried to stop the truck and passenger jet from colliding. According to the audio, an air traffic controller cleared a fire truck to cross Runway 4 at taxiway ‘Delta’, where the collision occurred. Shortly after, an air traffic controller repeatedly tries to stop the vehicle, saying "Stop, stop, stop, truck one, stop, truck one, stop.” The aircraft struck the fire vehicle at a speed of about 24 mph, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, which last recorded data at 11:37 p.m. ET, Reuters reported. Following the collision, an air traffic controller can be heard saying LaGuardia Airport is going to be closed and relays the information to an apparent other flight, Frontier 4195, which was slated to depart the airport for Miami at 10:55 p.m., according to Flightradar24. That flight responds to air traffic control in the recording, saying "That wasn’t good to watch.” "I tried to reach out to my staff, and we were dealing with an emergency earlier," the air traffic controller said in response. "I messed up.” It was not immediately clear what the controller meant by messing up. The Frontier 4195 flight then responded to the air traffic controller, saying "No, man, you did the best you could." The audio continues with air traffic controllers telling other planes the airport would be closed all night. The crash comes as some airports are already swamped with long security wait times and travel disruptions caused by the partial government shutdown. Absences among Transportation Security Administration workers reached their highest level over the weekend since the partial shutdown began five weeks ago, leaving tens of thousands of workers without pay, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

NPR [3/23/2026 5:05 PM, Steve Kastenbaum, Ailsa Chang, 28764K] Audio: HERE reports as President Trump says he’s sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to help with TSA screening at U.S. airports, we hear from frustrated passengers at New York City’s LaGuardia airport.

The New York Times [3/23/2026 5:52 PM, Gabe Castro-Root, 148038K] reports up to 150 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were deployed at airports across the United States on Monday, a move that the Trump administration said was an effort to address long lines amid a shortage of Transportation Security Administration agents, who are working without pay during the partial government shutdown. ICE officers’ exact duties at airports remained unclear. Officers were seen on Monday at several airports walking in small groups through check-in areas and standing near exits, their faces mostly unmasked. Unlike T.S.A. agents, ICE personnel are being paid. Democratic lawmakers and the union representing T.S.A. officers denounced the deployment of ICE to airports as disruptive, unsafe and unhelpful. Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Saturday that ICE officers’ duties at airports would include “the immediate arrest of all illegal immigrants who have come into our Country.” But there have so far been no reports of arrests connected to the deployment. Mr. Trump said on Monday that he would send the National Guard to assist at airports if ICE agents were unable to ease delays. He also said that Republicans should stop negotiating with Democrats to end the partial government shutdown. The Washington Post [3/23/2026 3:04 PM, Amy B. Wang, Marianne LeVine, and Andrea Sachs, 24826K] reports Representatives for airports in Atlanta; Cleveland; Newark; New Orleans; New York; Fort Myers, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Phoenix confirmed that ICE officers would be on-site Monday. The George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport, both in Houston, also were anticipating some officers, according to the Houston Airports website. And Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson confirmed a planned deployment of about 75 ICE personnel at O’Hare International Airport, saying the officers would monitor exit lanes, make passenger announcements and assist with managing lines. Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, said officers would be sent to more than 14 airports in all, but he declined to identify the locations due to concerns about public protests. “We’re going to first send out to the biggest airports with the biggest wait lines,” Homan said on SiriusXM’s “Cuomo Mornings.”

NBC News [3/23/2026 1:19 PM, Suzanne Gamboa, Julia Ainsley and Laura Strickler, 42967K] reports travelers in America’s overstressed airports on Monday spotted Department of Homeland Security personnel, including ICE agents, who have been tasked with assisting Transportation Security Administration workers as they entered another week without pay due to a partial government shutdown. NBC News confirmed that ICE and DHS officers and agents were at several major airports, including Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. At O’Hare’s Terminal 3, armed DHS agents and officers were seen at a walkway connecting the secured area to the general terminal. An officer manning that area told an NBC News field producer the ICE agents were helping with security and not checking people’s IDs as they passed by. The callout rate for TSA workers, who have not been paid in weeks, reached a high on Friday, at 10.22%, according to a DHS spokesperson. John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City had a callout rate of 29.5% on Friday, and Houston Intercontinental Airport had a rate of 36.6% the same day, the spokesperson said. Houston Hobby Airport had a callout rate of 51.5% on Friday, according to DHS. The presence of ICE and DHS agents and officers was a popular topic of conversation among passengers and airline workers on a flight from Memphis to Atlanta Monday morning. In one conversation overheard by NBC News, the pilot and flight attendants said they hope ICE agents don’t create more chaos, because "they’re not trained to have the patience we have in this business.” A senior ICE official told NBC News that at least 50 ICE personnel per shift will be at each airport and will not be performing screening duties. Another ICE official said that ICE officers and agents are not trained to use magnetometers or X-ray machines that TSA agents operate and oversee at airports. ICE officers and agents are trained in crowd control, monitoring lines and checking IDs, skills that could be useful at airport lines leading to security screening, the second ICE official said. Boarding domestic flights requires Real ID or a passport, limiting immigration arrests at airports. White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN’s "State of the Union" on Sunday that ICE agents would deploy to certain airports starting Monday to assist TSA officers with security at entrances and exits. He said that the ICE officers would be first sent to airports with the highest wait times.

Time [3/23/2026 4:30 AM, Chad de Guzman, 7800K] reports President Donald Trump has deployed agents from the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seemingly everywhere—from sanctuary cities to worksites for raids on undocumented communities, even to this year’s Winter Games to help with event security. In a surprise announcement over the weekend, he announced he’d deploy ICE agents to assist airport security operations nationwide amid a standoff in the funding for the Department of Homeland Security that has shut down the government and left Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers unpaid until it can be resolved. But the Administration hasn’t been clear about what the scope of these agents’ roles at airports will be, even as late as the day before their expected deployment on Monday. There are concerns about their lack of training in airport security and, more broadly, their widely protested enforcement of Trump’s immigration agenda across the country. Trump, in his Truth Social post on Sunday, said that Tom Homan, the White House “border czar,” will be in charge of ICE agents’ deployment to assist TSA workers. Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union Sunday about what ICE agents are expected to do, Homan said he was “working on the plan now of execution” with Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, and Ha Nguyen McNeill, the acting administrator for TSA. Homan defended ICE’s ability to handle airport security, saying ICE agents “receive a high level of training,” and he added that such agents are already assigned at other American airports for other roles. Homan said ICE agents could man airport exits like TSA officers do to prevent people from coming through them, and he said that the agents should be deployed to airports with the longest waiting lines.

NBC News [3/23/2026 6:51 PM, Staff, 42967K] Video: HERE reports President Trump deployed ICE officers to help speed up airport security lines, after thousands of unpaid TSA agents called out sick amid the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. NBC News’ Jesse Kirsch reports.

New York Times [3/23/2026 8:57 PM, Hamed Aleaziz, 148038K] reports when President Trump wanted to do something about the long lines at U.S. airports on Monday, he turned to one of his favorite tools: Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mr. Trump said he personally ordered that ICE agents be sent to manage crowds, amid a funding standoff that has led airport security workers to miss pay and not report to work. Unable to push congressional Democrats to approve funding for the Homeland Security Department without giving in on some immigration policies, he said ICE was an obvious choice to address the fallout. “ICE,” he told reporters Monday, “was my idea.” Mr. Trump has increasingly used ICE to try to achieve personal and political objectives, deploying a force with a quasi-military bearing around the country with a message that he intends to not just carry out his anti-immigration agenda but to also enforce his views on constituencies and states that have opposed him. Last year, he sent officers into large Democratic-run cities as part of a highly visible immigration enforcement operation. He rushed teams to Minneapolis to pursue Somali immigrants accused of fraud in viral videos. Now, he is pushing agents to airports to help the Transportation Security Administration and pressure Democrats into folding in the weekslong shutdown fight. On Monday, between 100 and 150 ICE agents were dispatched to more than a dozen airports across the country, according to one U.S. official. Pictures and videos of the agents, wearing vests with their agency’s name on them, showed them standing near identification processing locations and keeping guard. Some agents were seen walking around the terminal halls. Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said it was “ludicrous” to assign political motives to the deployment. “Because of the Democrat shutdown,” she said, “President Trump is using every tool available to help American travelers who are facing hours’ long lines at airports across the country — especially during this spring break and holiday season that is very important for many American families.” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, also said Mr. Trump’s motives were not political. “Enforcing federal immigration law isn’t political — it’s the law,” she said. Some former ICE officials say Mr. Trump is doing harm to an organization that has struggled with its reputation and needs to maintain some independence from the president’s will. “President Trump cannot help himself and is using ICE as a political battering ram,” said Deborah Fleischaker, a former senior ICE official in the Biden administration. “ICE has an important public safety mission. It would be nice if the administration actually allowed them to do it — humanely, fairly and in compliance with the law and U.S. Constitution.” Mr. Trump has been open about his view that ICE can help him with goals that go far beyond immigration enforcement. In a June directive to ICE officers on social media, he indicated that aiming his mass deportation campaign at Democratic-led cities could help Republicans electorally.

New York Times [3/24/2026 3:44 AM, Jacey Fortin, Hamed Aleaziz and Gabe Castro-Root, 330K] reports agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement were deployed at airports across the nation on Monday, but their exact purpose was unclear, and their presence did not ease the pain of many travelers. Between 100 and 150 ICE officers were sent to the airports to assist Transportation Security Administration agents, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to discuss the matter. ICE agents were seen at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Some strode through terminal halls on regular patrols, while others were stationed at security checkpoints. Many stood and observed, chatted with colleagues or looked at their phones, instead of taking on tasks that would alleviate the burden on understaffed T.S.A. agents, some of whom said they believed ICE was there mostly for crowd control. At Philadelphia International Airport in the afternoon, agents in tactical gear guided people to general boarding checkpoints or T.S.A. PreCheck. The Trump administration has not given many details about how the agents would help airports manage the long wait times. But in a statement on Monday, Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, citing the Department of Homeland Security, said the agents’ duties included managing the security lines, monitoring exit lanes and making routine announcements, like telling passengers to remove liquids from their carry-on bags. Those tasks, he added, were intended to allow T.S.A. officers to stay focused on passenger and baggage screening. He also said he would work to ensure that people could travel through O’Hare “without harassment from the federal government.” The U.S. official who estimated the number of ICE agents deployed said they were not expected to make immigration arrests, though that appeared to conflict with President Trump’s statement about the agents on Sunday. Despite the deployment of the agents and a deadly collision and closure at LaGuardia Airport in New York overnight, flight delays and cancellations were minimal at major U.S. airports Monday, according to FlightAware, which tracks aviation data. Still, hours of waiting at T.S.A. checkpoints caused many travelers to miss their flights. Things were moving smoothly at some airports, including the ones in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Chicago. But major hubs in Atlanta and the New York City area gave up on updating their live wait-time trackers Monday morning, leaving passengers to wait and worry in lines that sometimes stretched into the airports’ remotest reaches. At George Bush Intercontinental Airport, the lines wound all the way into the stuffy underground walkways connecting the terminals. At one point, the estimated wait time was four hours. “I’ve never seen a line like this,” said Laila Josephine, a CLEAR employee at the airport. According to D.H.S., more than 400 T.S.A. agents have quit during the partial government shutdown, and on Sunday, more than 3,450 of them called out from work, or about 12 percent of those scheduled. Thousands have gone without pay.

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Los Angeles Times [3/23/2026 4:28 PM, Wyatte Grantham-Philips, 12718K]

The Wall Street Journal [3/23/2026 2:41 PM, Harriet Torry, Cameron McWhirter, and Rachel Wolfe, 646K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deployed to several U.S. airports Monday to help manage long security lines amid the lapse in funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The agents, often unmasked, were seen at major airports in New York City, Atlanta, Phoenix and Houston, among others. DHS hadn’t released a full list of airports expecting agents as of Monday afternoon. Acting Deputy Transportation Security Administration Administrator Adam Stahl said Monday on Fox News that ICE officers would be doing “nonspecialized security support”—such as crowd control. President Trump’s move to put ICE officials in U.S. airports came after weeks of stalled talks in Washington to reopen DHS, which has been largely shut since Feb. 14. The shutdown has squeezed TSA officers working without paychecks—prompting more absences and resignations. (ICE remains operational using a stream of funding approved under 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.) At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest by passenger volume, lines for TSA snaked down the hallways of the main terminal and into baggage claim. Homeland Security officers, wearing side arms and some carrying rifles, stood guard near the lines. Airport staff and airline workers handled the bulk of the work managing the long lines and answering people’s questions. Speaking to reporters Monday, Trump said he would consider sending in the National Guard if the ICE presence isn’t enough to get airport lines under control. Earlier, he encouraged ICE agents to forgo masks while at airports. USA Today [3/23/2026 4:53 PM, Trevor Hughes, 70643K] reports critics of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement efforts have seized on his request that ICE officers patrolling airports should not wear masks as evidence they never needed them in the first place. Civil rights groups have been fighting to force Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to show their faces during operations as a way of ensuring accountability. Several states are now battling the White House in federal court over anonymizing mask bans. The administration’s prior insistence of the necessity of masks is partially driving the ongoing partial federal government shutdown that has halted paychecks for TSA security screeners. Because so many unarmed TSA workers are either calling in sick or outright quitting, Trump ordered armed ICE officers to bolster their numbers at airports. The move alarmed some travelers who worried that immigration officers might use overly aggressive tactics inside the nation’s airports. Trump said he believes ICE officers should avoid masks during their airport deployments but allowed to wear them at other times. Citing security concerns, federal officials have not released details about how many ICE officers have been deployed to airports, or what airports they’ve been sent to.

NewsMax [3/23/2026 10:10 AM, Brian Freeman, 3760K] reports President Donald Trump stated on Monday that while he supports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wearing masks during enforcement actions against criminal illegal aliens, he prefers no masks when they’re assisting at U.S. airports. Writing on Truth Social, the president said, "I am a big proponent of ICE wearing masks as they search for, and are forced to deal with, hardened criminals, many of whom were let into our country by Sleepy Joe Biden and his wonderful "Border Czar," Kamala [Harris] (she never even went to the Border!), through their absolutely insane Open Border Policy.” Trump added, "I would greatly appreciate, however, no masks, when helping our country out of the Democrat caused mess at the airports.” Trump’s message came after he declared on Sunday that ICE agents will arrive at the nation’s airports on Monday to handle security at exceedingly long lines driven by a shortage of Transportation Security Administration workers due to the government shutdown.

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Breitbart [3/23/2026 12:52 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 2238K]
FOX News [3/23/2026 1:00 PM, Eric Mack, 37576K]
Washington Examiner [3/23/2026 10:34 AM, Hailey Bullis, 1147K]

Washington Examiner [3/23/2026 10:49 AM, Christian Datoc, 1147K] reports President Donald Trump told reporters Monday morning that he may deploy National Guard members to airports across the country to assist Transportation Security Administration employees affected by the partial government shutdown. Trump briefly discussed his plans to have Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers help out at the nation’s airports amid increasing delay times at security checkpoints. "I want to thank ICE, because they stepped in so, so strongly. They’ll do great," Trump told reporters before departing Palm Beach, Florida, for Memphis, Tennessee. "And if that’s not enough, I’ll bring in the National Guard. We’re not going to have the Democrats destroy our country.” Hundreds of TSA officials have quit or not shown up for work as Republicans and Democrats continue their standoff over funding the Department of Homeland Security, causing air travelers to spend hours waiting to make it through airport security. Over the weekend, Trump announced plans to send ICE officers to assist TSA employees in hopes of driving down those wait times. ICE employees are still getting paid throughout the shutdown, as the president’s spending package from last year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, included more than $75 billion in direct funding for the agency.

FOX News [3/23/2026 6:40 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Fox News correspondent Madison Scarpino reports on I.C.E. assisting TSA agents with long security lines and delays at major airports across the U.S. on ‘Special Report.’

The AP [3/23/2026 4:22 PM, Nicholas Riccardi and Rebecca Santana] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been deployed to select airports across the country, where they are meant to help mitigate long lines fueled by staffing shortfalls caused by a partial government shutdown. But ICE officers are not trained in aviation safety and their central role in President Donald Trump’s contentious immigration enforcement agenda is raising questions about how effective their assistance might be in easing wait times — and whether it could stoke tensions with travelers. The government has given few details on what immigration officers will do and Trump has suggested that airports were “fertile ground” for immigration enforcement, although he said ICE was only there to help. ICE officers on Monday were seen standing near security lines and checkpoints and so far were not screening passengers. Long wait times continued at some airports. US News & World Report [3/23/2026 4:00 PM, Olivier Knox, 16072K] reports ICE agents won’t necessarily be doing specialized jobs traditionally managed by TSA, like screening passengers and luggage, border czar Tom Homan told CNN on Sunday. They can replace TSA to guard exits, for example, freeing those agents to reinforce the screening process, Homan said. The border czar said he was working with the heads of ICE and TSA to work out exactly what the mission would be and at what airports. The priority will be "the large airports where there’s a long wait, like three hours," he said. While Trump announced the ICE deployment over the weekend, it wasn’t clear how many agents would actually go, or where, and what their exact jobs would be. In short: It may look like federal action but the actual impact is unclear.

NewsMax [3/23/2026 9:40 AM, Brian Freeman, 3760K] repots Rep. Keith Self defended the Trump administration’s decision to deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to major U.S. airports, telling Newsmax on Monday that it is a necessary response to security vulnerabilities and staffing shortages during the ongoing government shutdown. The Texas Republican said on "Wake Up America" that the move reflects President Donald Trump’s broader push to tighten border security, particularly as absenteeism among Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel strains airport operations nationwide. "I think he’s responding to the reports that the illegal immigrants had used the opportunity to come through," Self said. "If the borders are these airports that have less security right now… then absolutely, it’s a good response.” Under the plan, ICE agents are being deployed to assist with tasks such as checking identification and securing exit points, allowing TSA officers to focus on screening duties. The move comes as the partial government shutdown stretches into its sixth week, with reports of long lines and delays at major travel hubs. Self pointed to the disruptions as evidence of what he described as Democrat responsibility for the prolonged funding impasse, arguing that the lapse in federal support has directly affected agencies critical to public safety and travel. "The Democrats need to do their job… fund TSA, FEMA, those things that help American people directly," he said.

USA Today [3/23/2026 10:13 AM, Eve Chen and Zach Wichter, 70643K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrived at some U.S. airports aiming to help with long waits amid the partial government shutdown, but at least one traveler at John F. Kennedy International Airport tells USA TODAY that so far, "It’s not helping." Both masked and unmasked ICE agents in marked vests were seen at JFK and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where travelers were still reporting long airport security waits. In a post on social media, President Donald Trump weighed in on agents wearing masks, saying he’s a "BIG proponent of ICE wearing masks," but said he’d "greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports." The New York Times and CNN report that ICE agents are being deployed to more than a dozen airports across the country. DHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Lauren Bis, told USA TODAY that the agency would not confirm the locations of officers, citing "operational security reasons." Without naming each airport, the New York Times similarly reported, "The airports span the country, including Kennedy and LaGuardia in New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston and Phoenix." "President Trump is using every tool available to help American travelers who are facing hours long lines at airports across the country—especially during this spring break and holiday season that is very important for many American families. This pointless, reckless shutdown of our homeland security workforce has caused more than 400 TSA officers to quit and thousands to call out from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent," Acting Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Lauren Bis said in a statement to USA TODAY. "President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, that are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted. This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions.”

NPR [3/24/2026 4:39 AM, Sofi Gratas and Michel Martin, 34837K] reports ICE agents have been deployed to help at airports around the country to shorten TSA wait times, but on their first day, airports remained busy with long lines. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

USA Today [3/23/2026 2:34 PM, Nathan Diller, 70643K] reports President Donald Trump sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports around the country on Monday, March 23, as long security lines continue amid a partial government shutdown. Transportation Security Administration worker absences reached their highest levels over the weekend since the shutdown began in mid-February, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Officers have been working without regular pay, and more than 400 have quit, the White House said in a March 22 post on X. ICE agents were spotted at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and more. Agents are being sent to the following 13 airports, CNN reported: Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), ,Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA), Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY), Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico (SJU), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) and Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW).

Axios [3/23/2026 1:35 PM, Mike D’Onofrio and Andrew Pantazi, 17364K] reports that President Trump says he’s sending ICE agents to several U.S. airports Monday to assist TSA officers. Philly is reportedly among those airports. Why it matters: Philadelphia International Airport has closed several security checkpoints amid a partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown, during which TSA agents have gone more than five weeks without pay. State of play: Philly is one of at least 13 airports where DHS is deploying ICE agents, per CNN. Other airports include those in Pittsburgh, Chicago and New York City. Worth noting: PHL spokesperson Heather Redfern declined to confirm if and when ICE agents could be at the airport Monday. A spokesperson for Mayor Cherelle Parker did not immediately return a request for comment. Zoom in: Three security terminals at Philly’s airport remained closed due to TSA staffing shortages on Monday — Terminal A-West, Terminal C and Terminal F. By the numbers: On Sunday, 24.2% of Philly airport’s TSA officers called out, per NBC News citing DHS data. Yes, but: While PHL has seen some security delays, it’s largely avoided hours-long wait times like in New Orleans and Atlanta. Case in point: Wait times to pass through security late Monday morning were under 10 minutes, per PHL’s online tracker.

Washington Examiner [3/23/2026 12:17 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports Federal agents and officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be on site at 13 major U.S. airports, filling in amid staffing shortages at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints as the partial government shutdown begins its seventh week. A senior administration official told the Washington Examiner on Monday morning that ICE employees will focus on maintaining "more of a presence" at airport security checkpoints, acting more as background support due to their lack of training to carry out TSA responsibilities. "They may assist with documents. But not working machines. Helping with lines. Crowd control. Exits. Etc," the official wrote in a text message. A second official, this one from ICE, said ICE personnel from the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm and Homeland Security Investigations arm will both be on site at airports. Employees will be in their ICE uniforms. President Donald Trump decided over the weekend to have ICE personnel assist TSA amid mass staff shortages nationwide due to the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security. When asked by a reporter on Monday morning if ICE would arrest illegal immigrants at airports, Trump stated that ICE was "able to now arrest illegals as they come into the country." Trump added that airports were "very fertile territory.” However, non-U.S. citizens without valid travel documents may not enter the United States.

Axios [3/23/2026 12:45 PM, Sam Allard, 17364K] reports ICE agents arrived at Cleveland Hopkins International Monday morning, a day after President Trump said he’s sending ICE to U.S. airports to assist the Transportation Security Administration. TSA officers have been working without pay for more than five weeks during the partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown. "These personnel are supporting TSA operations in a non-screening role, including assisting with passenger flow and divesting," Hopkins spokesperson Michele Dynia tells Axios. "They are not conducting identification checks or screening passengers. There is no impact to passenger travel or airport operations at this time." DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said more than 3,400 TSA agents across U.S. airports called out Sunday, an 11.8% absence rate and the highest of the shutdown. "President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, that are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted," Bis said in a statement. "This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions." White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN’s "State of the Union" that ICE agents would not operate X-ray machines but could guard exit lanes and check IDs to free up TSA officers.

Axios [3/23/2026 2:42 PM, Jeremy Duda and Andrew Pantazi, 17364K] reports that the Trump administration deployed ICE agents to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to assist short-staffed TSA officers amid the partial federal shutdown. Why it matters: The administration’s move thrusts the agency that sparked the shutdown with its conduct in Minnesota into the nation’s airports to deal with the consequences. The big picture: TSA officers have worked without pay for five weeks during a partial federal shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which congressional Democrats refuse to fund without new restrictions on ICE. More than 400 TSA officers have since quit and thousands more have called out of work, acting assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis told Axios. More than 20% of TSA agents at Sky Harbor called out on Sunday, per Bis. The latest: Sky Harbor is one of 14 airports where ICE agents were sent, CNN reported. White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN’s "State of the Union" on Sunday that ICE agents would not operate X-ray machines but could guard exit lanes and check IDs to free up TSA officers. State of play: City of Phoenix aviation officials were notified that ICE would assist TSA with processing passengers at security checkpoints beginning Monday morning, per Sky Harbor. Officials noted that the airport is subject to federal regulation so federal officers have access to facilities, including security areas, terminals and the airfield.

NewsMax [3/23/2026 10:35 AM, Staff, 3760K] reports Federal immigration officers have been seen at an airport in Atlanta after President Donald Trump said he’d deploy them to supplement the Transportation Security Administration during a government shutdown that has caused long lines at security checkpoints across the country. On Monday morning, a handful of federal officers were seen by The Associated Press near busy lines at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Federal officers are a routine presence at international airports, where Customs and Border Protection officers screen arriving travelers and Homeland Security Investigations agents handle criminal cases tied to smuggling, trafficking and fraud. But what’s unusual in the current moment is their visibility at TSA security checkpoints. Atlanta’s Hartsfield–Jackson isn’t the only airport where travelers are set to see more immigration officers going forward. On Sunday, the Trump administration signaled that agents would be deployed to large airports with the longest wait times — and Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bis said that would include "hundreds" of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, but she did not disclose all the airports they would go to, citing security reasons. Hundreds of thousands of Homeland Security workers, including from the TSA, U.S. Secret Service, and Coast Guard, have worked without pay since Congress failed to renew DHS funding last month. That’s led many TSA agents to call in sick — or even quit their jobs — as financial strains pile up. Meanwhile, the staffing shortages have forced some airports to close checkpoints at times, with wait times swinging dramatically for travelers. Trump said Sunday that he would order federal immigration agents to airports to assist TSA by guarding exit lanes or checking passenger IDs unless Democrats agreed to fund the DHS. Funding for the department lapsed Feb. 14, as Democrats refused to fund ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection without changes to their operations in the wake of the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Blaze [3/23/2026 10:50 AM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1556K] reports that more than willing to hold Americans’ ease of travel hostage, Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and his Democratic allies in the U.S. Senate initiated a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security last month, conditioning the passage of the FY2026 DHS appropriations bill on restrictions to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection operations. This Democratic denial of funding that has survived over four votes on theme has manifested in long lines and headaches at airports across the country — especially at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which urged travelers on Monday morning to "arrive at least 4 hours early" on account of Transportation Security Administration staffing constraints and the correlated "longer than normal wait times at security checkpoints." While advising passengers to allow at least four hours for security screenings, the airport presently recommends budgeting additional time for checked baggage. According to the airport traffic rankings released last year by Airports Council International, Hartsfield-Jackson was the busiest in North America, boasting over 108 million passengers and 796,224 aircraft movements in 2024. On Sunday, only four of the 18 TSA screening lanes were open at America’s busiest airport, reported CNN. The general boarding line was reportedly backed up past the atrium, wrapped around the baggage claim, and jutting out the door at the drop-off area.

Washington Examiner [3/23/2026 11:12 AM, Asher Notheis, 1147K] reports Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is requesting that flyers arrive at least four hours before takeoff as the Department of Homeland Security shutdown continues. The Atlanta airport cited "staffing constraints" with the Transportation Security Administration in its post on X. Footage shared online showed wait lines extending outside the airport. "We appreciate your patience and thank our federal and airport partners for their continued dedication," the airport said on Monday morning. President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will assist TSA officers at airports amid the shutdown. Atlanta is among the airports receiving ICE’s help, with footage and photos of officers at the airport posted online. Border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday that ICE officers won’t replace TSA officers, but instead fill gaps created by staffing shortages. However, some are giving Trump’s deployment of ICE a chilly reception, with the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union calling it an "invasion.” DHS shared footage of the long line of travelers at the Atlanta airport on X, writing, "Thank a Democrat.”

CBS News [3/23/2026 6:14 PM, Dan Raby, Daniel Wilkerson, Zachary Bynum, 51110K] reports Mayor Andre Dickens says that his administration is actively monitoring the situation at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after federal personnel were deployed to the world’s busiest airport to support with security operations. On Monday, the federal agents joined Transportation Security Administration officers in Atlanta’s security lines after thousands of unpaid TSA workers called out sick, creating major delays at checkpoints. According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 41% of the Atlanta airport’s TSA agents called out on Sunday alone. In his update, Dickens said that he was informed by federal authorities that the agents will be primarily used for "line management and crowd control within the domestic terminals." The Atlanta airport is one of 14 where ICE agents are currently stationed, according to White House border czar Tom Homan. The Atlanta Police Department’s airport division will continue to lead law enforcement operations at Hartsfield-Jackson, including traffic management and emergency response.

USA Today [3/23/2026 2:16 PM, Irene Wright, 70643K] reports that lines for security at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport remain long Monday afternoon. The wait is estimated to be around two hours, but airport officials have stopped displaying the wait time on screens in the airport or updating their online tracker. On the website, officials gave a blanket four hour wait expectancy, and said passengers should plan accordingly. It’s the first day Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been deployed at major airports to assist TSA officers. The officers have now worked without pay for more than a month, and many are calling out of their shifts leaving checkpoints severely understaffed. TSA PreCheck and Clear lines have periods where they are open, but other times the expedited lines are shut down as the resources are consolidated. For the most part, the lines inside the airport were moving quickly about 1 p.m. as they wound through both the north and south sides of the terminal, the south usually dedicated solely to Delta flights as the airline is headquartered in Atlanta. The mood inside the airport remains chaotic, but when USA TODAY spoke to passengers in line, they sympathized with TSA officers, and many said they understood and supported the officers who called out of their shifts. They also didn’t blame one political party or the other, but rather the political system as a whole. DHS funding includes operational costs for agencies including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Coast Guard.

NBC News [3/23/2026 4:01 PM, Staff, 42967K] reports federal officers arrested two people at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday night, according to officials. A video posted to social media showed a woman on her knees being detained. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested two people from a family that "has an outstanding final order of removal from an immigration judge since 2019." DHS said one of the arrestees tried to flee and resisted officers while being escorted to the international terminal for processing. The arrests were believed to be an "isolated incident," SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel said, adding that the airport has "no reason to suspect broader enforcement action at SFO." The detention was unrelated to President Donald Trump’s announced plan to deploy ICE agents to over a dozen U.S. airports to help Transportation Security Administration with its personnel staffing shortages nationwide.

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Telemundo 48 - Area de la Bahia [3/23/2026 12:08 PM, Marián Caraballo, 26K]

SFGate [3/23/2026 11:32 AM, Staff, 10094K] reports that a viral video of federal immigration agents detaining a woman and her child at San Francisco International Airport late Sunday night drew swift condemnation from local and national officials and renewed calls for limits on federal immigration enforcement. Videos circulating on social media show two plainclothes federal agents restraining a woman near a gate while a young girl stands nearby crying. In one video, a witness is heard asking officers to show identification. In another video, San Francisco police officers are shown forming a protective line between the arrest and bystanders. San Francisco police said in a statement Monday, that officers responded to a 911 call around 10 p.m. Sunday. "SFPD officers were not involved in the incident but remained at the scene to maintain public safety," the statement said. "Consistent with our City Charter, state law, and SFPD department policy, we do not assist in the enforcement of civil federal immigration laws." The incident is not related to a social media post by President Donald Trump saying he will place officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in airports in response to a congressional standoff over a partial shutdown on funding to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Most of the nation’s airports are experiencing delays due to the increased absenteeism of unpaid Transportation Security Administration workers. SFO security agents are paid through independent contracts. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a statement reiterating that the arrest occurred before ICE officers were deployed to airports to bolster TSA efforts. "ICE officers arrested Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and Wendy Godinez-Lopez at the San Francisco International Airport," the statement said. "These illegal aliens had a final removal order of removal from an immigration judge since 2019. While being escorted to the international terminal for processing, Lopez-Jimenez attempted to flee and resisted law enforcement officers. ICE is working as quickly as possible to repatriate the family unit to their home country of Guatemala." The New York Post [3/23/2026 6:17 PM, Ronny Reyes, 40934K] reports that officers were met with backlash from multiple passengers who filmed the scene and yelled at them, as the woman continued to cry with a young girl standing beside her, also sobbing. "This is un-American," one passenger is heard yelling. "What is your badge number? What is your name?" one of the people filming asks as an agent holds the crying woman by the head. However, the Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that the woman was part of a family of illegal Guatemalan migrants who have had removal orders since 20019. Agents arrested the family members as part of a targeted operation, but as they were being escorted away, the woman broke free and ran, according to DHS. DHS accused the woman of resisting arrest as agents tried to cuff her again. The airport also confirmed that the arrest was unrelated to Trump’s order to deploy ICE agents at busy air hubs around the country to try and ease the wait times at TSA lines. "We understand federal officers were transporting two individuals on an outbound flight when this incident occurred. We believe this is an isolated incident and have no reason to suspect broader enforcement action at SFO," spokesman Doug Yakel said. told The Post. After the arrest, the agents appeared to have trouble moving the woman as the crowd of passengers yelled and booed at them, with the hecklers eventually calling the police. The ICE agents were able to leave with the woman, with San Francisco police present during the detention. The sanctuary city police neither assisted nor intervened in the arrest. The San Francisco Chronicle [3/23/2026 8:20 PM, Megan Cassidy and Aidin Vaziri, 10094K] reports that statements issued by SFO officials and Mayor Daniel Lurie sought to reassure the public that the incident was not part of a broader immigration enforcement effort at the airport. The confrontation unfolded within hours of the administration’s weekend announcement that it would deploy immigration agents to airports to help ease Transportation Security Administration wait times during the partial shutdown of DHS. “The airport’s role is to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the facility for all passengers and staff,” SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel said. “We were not involved in or notified in advance of this incident. Airport operations continued without disruption, and there was no impact to flights or passenger processing.” Officials said the two individuals may have been taken into custody elsewhere before being brought to the airport, though DHS did not specify where officers first made contact with the woman and child. Nellie Killian, a San Francisco resident who witnessed the incident, said she was exiting a restroom when she saw a crowd gathering near baggage claim as agents struggled with the woman. “She was kneeling over a bench and they had her sort of penned in, standing behind her,” Killian said. The young girl stood nearby, she said, “crying hysterically.” San Francisco International Airport is one of about 20 U.S. airports that use private contractors, rather than federal TSA employees, to staff security checkpoints. Because those screeners are privately employed and funded, they continue to be paid during the shutdown, helping SFO avoid the staffing shortages seen elsewhere.

AP [3/23/2026 7:08 PM, Janie Har, 35287K] reports video footage of federal officers detaining a crying woman at San Francisco International Airport drew outrage Monday from local officials, although it was unrelated to President Donald Trump’s deployment of immigration officers to short-staffed airports during a partial government shutdown. One video posted on social media showed a woman crying and yelling as officers held her down and attempted to handcuff her while her child looked on. The Department of Homeland Security said in an email that officers arrested Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and Wendy Godinez-Jimenez at the airport Sunday as the family had an outstanding final order of removal to Guatemala from 2019. State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco and candidate for Congress, held a news conference Monday outside the airport to denounce the actions of federal authorities. Several Democratic candidates for California governor also sharply criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to the video. “We don’t want ICE here and when ICE descends on our communities, it only creates fear,” Wiener said. On social media, the footage generated concerns over Trump’s move to place ICE officers at airports as many Transportation Security Administration officers have quit or are calling out sick after weeks of working without pay. ICE officers were spotted Monday at several airports after Trump said he would deploy them unless Democrats agree to a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats say they are holding out until the administration makes reforms in the wake of a crackdown in Minnesota that led to the fatal shootings of two protesters. San Francisco International Airport is not among airports where ICE officers are expected, airport officials said. That’s because the airport uses private contractors to screen passengers so it is not affected by the current impasse in Congress. “We believe this is an isolated incident and have no reason to suspect broader enforcement action at SFO,” airport spokesman Doug Yakel said in a statement. While being escorted to the international terminal for processing, Lopez-Jimenez attempted to flee and resisted law enforcement officers, DHS said. The department typically has offices or processing facilities at international airport terminals. ICE plans to return the family to Guatemala, the statement said. “This arrest occurred BEFORE ICE officers were even deployed to bolster TSA efforts to help American travelers who are facing hours long lines across the country,” the statement said.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [3/23/2026 11:02 PM, Kanishka Singh, Ted Hesson, 38315K] r

FOX News [3/23/2026 5:37 PM, Elaine Mallon, 37576K] reports House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said that the Trump administration’s decision to deploy ICE agents to airports will create "chaos," implying that airline passengers could be killed by ICE agents. Jeffries shared his reservations about ICE agents patrolling airports with CNN host Dana Bash on "State of the Union" on Sunday. His comments come shortly after Trump’s "border czar, Tom Homan, told Bash the Trump administration will deploy federal immigration agents to airports. The move follows TSA worker shortages causing long security lines. TSA agents have either quit or called out of work in response to missed paychecks due to the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security. On Monday, ICE agents were deployed to 14 airports, including New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.

Axios [3/23/2026 5:12 PM, Abbey Higginbotham, 17364K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents won’t be sent to Kansas City International Airport during the partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown because of the way it staffs its checkpoints. ICE agents were sent to more than a dozen airports Monday, including hubs like Houston, Atlanta and Chicago, to help manage crowds. Transportation Security Administration officers have been working without pay, and hundreds have quit or called out, leading to hourslong waits at some airports, with checkpoints closing and lines spilling into terminals and parking garages. Since 2002, screening at KCI has been handled by VMD Corp. under TSA’s Screening Partnership Program, which allows airports to contract out security functions. Because they are contractors, not federal workers, their pay and schedule have not been affected. Federal agencies already operate at KCI as part of their daily operations, but KC aviation department spokesperson Jackson Overstreet tells Axios that they have been told no additional ICE agents will be sent to KCI.

The Hill [3/23/2026 5:24 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 18170K] reports Congress is facing mounting pressure to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and end the partial government shutdown as flight delays and long security lines are worsening at airports nationwide. President Trump said this past weekend he would deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to airports to help manage the strain, a move that appeared aimed at pressuring Democrats to drop their demands for reforms and agree to fund the DHS. But the announcement has drawn sharp pushback from congressional Democrats, and questions remain about what role the officers will play in the days ahead. Schumer pointed to remarks from border czar Tom Homan, who said earlier Sunday he was “working on the plan” with acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, adding, “We’ll have a plan by the end of today.” But the chaos plaguing air hubs throughout the country has injected stalled negotiations with newfound momentum, as lawmakers begin to feel the pressure from their constituents to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers before they leave Washington on Friday for a two-week Easter recess. Acting DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Lauren Bis told The Hill Monday that more than 400 TSA officers have quit their jobs since the partial government shutdown began on Feb. 14. Bis said 11.76 percent of TSA officers — more than 3,450 employees — called out from work on Sunday, the highest share reported during the shutdown. Politico [3/23/2026 4:13 PM, Cheyanne M. Daniels and Finya Swai, 21784K] reports that airport and city officials at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport, New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, New Jersey’s Newark Liberty Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport all confirmed to POLITICO that immigration agents were there. Agents have also been seen at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest airport. Border tzar Tom Homan told reporters Monday that ICE agents are present at “14 airports right now, and there will be more.” The agents’ arrivals come amid a more than a month-long, ongoing partial government shutdown, with congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump squabbling with Democrats over funding the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have demanded major changes to the Trump administration’s immigration tactics as a prerequisite to funding the DHS, while congressional Republicans have rejected Democratic bids to fund most of DHS — save for immigration-focused agencies — while talks continue. “The laws haven’t changed. It’s about the execution of our mission,” Homan said. Trump on Sunday evening also threw a wrench into congressional negotiations over the shutdown, stating on Truth Social he may not make a deal unless Democrats back his SAVE America Act, the GOP’s partisan elections bill that Democrats are unlikely to support. But as negotiations continue, TSA agents have gone without pay, leading some to call out of work and triggering hours-long wait times at some airports. A spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — which operates the three major airports in and around New York City — said in a statement “the Port Authority expects that any such personnel assigned to assist with passenger processing functions will be appropriately trained and focused on supporting screening operations, consistent with maintaining the safety, integrity, and efficiency of the security process at our airports and protecting the flying public.” Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport will also have an estimated 75 federal agents patrolling the airport to perform non-screening support functions, according to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, including monitoring exit lanes, making announcements, assisting with queue management and related activities intended to allow TSA officers to remain focused on passenger and baggage screening.

Wall Street Journal [3/23/2026 11:18 PM, Lindsay Wise, Siobhan Hughes, and Natalie Andrews, 646K] reports senators said they were closing in on a deal to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security except for the agency that carries out immigrant arrests and deportations, signaling a possible breakthrough after a more than monthlong standoff. “Both sides are talking in a serious way,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) as he left the Capitol Monday night. The potential breakthrough came after a meeting at the White House between President Trump and a group of GOP senators, including Sen. Katie Britt (R., Ala.). “It went really well,” Britt said afterward. Asked if they had a solution, she said, “We do.” She declined to share details. Pressure has been growing on lawmakers to resolve the impasse, which was sparked last month by Democrats’ demands for more restrictions on immigration enforcement agents. Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, but 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation. A lapse in funding at the Transportation Security Administration, part of DHS, has led to long security lines at airports across the country, as unpaid employees skip work. The approach under discussion would restore funding for all of DHS, except for the arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement that carries out immigrant arrests and deportations, called Enforcement and Removal Operations, Democratic senators said. Under the potential deal, funding would be restored to ICE’s other primary function called Homeland Security Investigations, which looks into complex international crimes, such as drug smuggling or human trafficking, said Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.). Coons said he expected there would be guardrails that would prevent ICE from reassigning HSI agents to conduct simple arrest and deportation functions normally carried out by Enforcement and Removal Operations. The Trump administration has routinely taken HSI agents off investigative duties to help drive up daily immigrant arrests. Should Republicans and Democrats agree to this route, Coons said the deal would also require ICE to make other changes, such as body cameras and identification for officers and additional training. It wasn’t clear whether the deal would address Democrats’ core demands such as a prohibition on agents wearing masks and banning a recent practice of forcing entry into private homes without a judicial warrant. Coons and other Democrats said they expect an offer on paper from Republicans as soon as Tuesday, and the details would matter. “Trust but verify. It’s part of the challenge of our dear president,” Coons said, making a roller-coaster motion with his hand.

Roll Call [3/23/2026 10:31 PM, Aris Folley and Jacob Fulton, 673K] reports Senators expressed newfound optimism Monday night that they were on the cusp of a deal to end a month-old partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. After a White House meeting with President Donald Trump earlier in the evening, GOP senators appeared convinced a deal was at hand on a plan that would allow tens of thousands of DHS workers to begin receiving paychecks — including Transportation Security Administration airport security workers who’ve been staying home in droves. The tentative arrangement would split off a large chunk of regular fiscal 2026 funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement from the earlier full-year funding bill for DHS that stalled in the Senate after the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration enforcement officers. "I’m more optimistic that by the end of the week, we will fund the Department of Homeland Security," Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Monday night after getting a readout from the meeting. She said discussions with Democrats would continue into the evening. The talks also got a jolt when senators confirmed one of their own, Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., as the next Homeland Security secretary Monday night, 54-45. Mullin got votes from two Democrats, New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich and Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman, but even his opponents acknowledged that Mullin would be a more reliable negotiating partner than his predecessor, the ousted Kristi Noem. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who was one of a handful of senators to meet with Trump, declined to give any details, saying she would defer to leadership for any announcements. But she said she believed a solution was at hand. "I am going to be working through the night, so hopefully we can figure out how to land this plane," said Britt, who leads the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. Democrats were a little more circumspect, saying they still needed to see paper on what Republicans were proposing. "I have not seen the language, and I don’t agree to anything till I see the language," Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., said. Democrats wouldn’t get everything they want in the tentative pact; Customs and Border Protection would be funded, for instance. And there were discussions about keeping other parts of ICE funded, including the Homeland Security Investigations division that works on anti-terror efforts, transnational crime, child exploitation and human trafficking, for instance.

CNN [3/23/2026 10:04 PM, Sarah Ferris, et al., 19874K] reports top Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill believe their party is unified behind a plan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. Now, they need to sell the plan to Democrats. Republican lawmakers emerged from a White House meeting on Monday night with a plan to fund DHS — all except a small portion of the immigration enforcement budget, in a concession to Democrats. Then, once that’s passed, Republicans plan to muscle through a partisan bill without Democratic votes to fund the rest of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — as well as new policies in President Donald Trump’s long-sought voter ID bill. That plan, which was described to CNN by a person familiar with the talks, has not yet been accepted by Democrats. But key Democrats said they were pleased with the direction, even without knowing all of the details. And the top Senate GOP spending leader, Sen. Susan Collins, told reporters she was "optimistic we’re on a good track." While Trump had previously rejected a similar idea, Republicans now feel the president is on board, that person and another source familiar said. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. Trump said Sunday he did not want to make a deal on DHS funding unless Democrats back the voter ID bill known as the "SAVE America Act" – despite the fact that supporting the bill is a nonstarter for Democrats. Trump was presented Sunday with a proposal to fund every part of the department except enforcement operations by ICE, two sources familiar with the conversations told CNN, but Trump rejected the idea as he took to Truth Social to attack Democrats for not backing the voter ID bill. If Senate Democrats do agree, it could put Congress on a path to ending the nearly 40-day shutdown of DHS that has left federal workers, like TSA officers, without pay. The funding deal would still need to go to the House, where GOP leaders would need to navigate a tight majority. Then Republicans would face an arduous few weeks crafting another major immigration bill — with both ICE funding and pieces of Trump’s contentious voter ID bill — all just months before a critical midterm election.

ABC News [3/23/2026 5:45 PM, John Parkinson, Jay O’Brien, and Lauren Peller, 34146K] reports Sen. Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat, said Monday that the ongoing Department of Homeland Security funding negotiations with the White House and Republicans have been "constructive," but emphasized that "there’s considerably more work to be done." Schumer said Trump is trying to "sabotage negotiations" as lawmakers work to hammer out a deal to end the DHS partial shutdown, as lines grow at airports across the country and tens of thousands of workers, including Transportation Security Administration officers, go without pay. Schumer said Trump "is the one standing in the way" of paying TSA workers after he directed Republicans over the weekend to not make a deal with Democrats on DHS funding without also passing his voting and gender-affirming care legislation, the SAVE America Act. During a crime-focused roundtable in Memphis on Monday, Trump said he is "suggesting strongly to the Republican Party" to avoid making "any deal on anything." Trump encouraged Republicans to stay in town for the upcoming recess to hammer out a deal: "Don’t worry about Easter, going home." Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that the negotiations are a very fluid situation, which will hopefully become more clear in the next two days. Monday’s developments come after Trump on Sunday rejected a potential off-ramp to the DHS shutdown after conversations between the White House and Senate Republican leaders, according to multiple sources who spoke with ABC News. Trump on Sunday shot down funding every agency inside the department -- except Immigration and Custom Enforcement, according to the sources.

AP [3/24/2026 1:13 AM, Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti, 34146K] reports Senators are discussing a proposal to end the Homeland Security budget stalemate by funding much of the department, including the Transportation Security Administration airport workers going without pay, but excluding ICE’s enforcement and removal operations that have been core to the dispute. The potential breakthrough came after a group of Republican senators headed to the White House late Monday to meet with President Donald Trump. Senators said they expected the negotiators to work through the night hammering out the details and present written proposals for both parties to discuss Tuesday at their weekly caucus lunches. "All I can say is that the discussions have been very positive and productive, and hopefully headed in the right direction," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters late in the evening: "Both sides are working in a serious way.” The sudden shift in the monthlong standoff comes as U.S. airports are jammed with long lines after routine Homeland Security funding was halted, leaving TSA understaffed during the spring travel season. Democrats are refusing to fund Homeland Security without restraints on Trump’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after the deaths of two U.S. citizens during ICE protests in Minneapolis. Trump took the extraordinary step over the weekend of ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to provide airport security, drawing alarm from some lawmakers that it could escalate tensions. The contours of the deal under consideration would fund most of Homeland Security, but exclude funding for one main part of ICE — the enforcement and removal operations that are core to Trump’s deportation agenda. Under the package being floated, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations would be funded as well as Customs and Border Protection, but with new guardrails to position officers from those divisions in their traditional roles, rather than as they have been used more recently in immigration roundups in cities. It would also include a number of changes in immigration operations that Democrats have demanded, including mandating that officers wear body cameras and identification. Since so much of ICE is already funded through Trump’s big tax breaks bill, and immigration officers are still receiving paychecks during the partial government shutdown, senators said the new restraints would also be imposed on operations that rely on that funding source, as well. "I’m going to be working through the night," said Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, a chief negotiator who returned from the White House meeting hopeful they had a solution to "land this plane.”

Breitbart [3/23/2026 12:31 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 2238K] reports President Donald Trump reportedly rejected Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-SD) proposal to cut a deal with Democrats to fund the Department of Homeland Security without funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Punchbowl News reported that on Sunday, Thune shared the proposal to Trump with the caveat that ICE could be funded down the line through reconciliation. The outlet reported: Democrats wouldn’t get some of their chief demands — banning masks for federal agents or requiring judicial warrants — if reconciliation were used. Plus, TSA agents would get their paychecks and the security-line madness at airports would end. But Trump said no, according to multiple sources. The president wants Republicans to stay in D.C. and keep fighting with Democrats over DHS funding and the SAVE America Act, the GOP’s voter ID and proof-of-citizenship bill. Not only that, Trump warned that he’d publicly slam Senate Republicans if they left town for the upcoming recess. Trump also said he’d invite all the GOP senators and their families for Easter dinner at the White House. Some Republicans took that as a threat, not a reward. Trump took to Truth Social Sunday night to emphasize he is against cutting a deal with Democrats.

CBS News [3/23/2026 4:25 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 51110K] reports Senate talks aimed at ending the 38-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security hit a new roadblock on Monday after President Trump called on Republicans to hold out for passage of an elections bill that Democrats strongly oppose. The SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast a ballot, has already been a headache for Senate Republicans. The chamber has been debating the measure for nearly a week in an attempt to placate conservatives who have demanded that the Senate maneuver around a 60-vote threshold to pass the bill. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been clear that the votes aren’t there. Speaking at an event in Memphis, Tennessee, on Monday, Mr. Trump said the SAVE America Act’s voter ID and proof of citizenship provisions should be "welded in" to DHS funding. The Senate is scheduled to leave for a two-week recess at the end of the week. But Thune has suggested the chamber could stay in town until the shutdown is resolved. Tepid optimism began to emerge among senators late last week that a deal could be possible, with acknowledgement that the two sides still had significant ground to cover. A bipartisan group of senators met Thursday and Friday with border czar Tom Homan. The meetings marked a key step forward as the two sides expressed more willingness to engage. But the weekend showed little progress. As the chamber reconvened Monday, Thune told CBS News that the president’s request to link the DHS funding to the election legislation was a "wrinkle" in the talks. He outlined to reporters that despite widespread GOP support for the SAVE America Act, the idea that the Senate would have to guarantee the bill’s passage to reopen the government isn’t "realistic." He said discussions continue over DHS funding.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [3/23/2026 1:42 PM, Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Skylar Woodhouse, 18082K]

NBC News [3/23/2026 1:36 PM, Staff, 42967K] reports on Sunday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., discussed an off-ramp with President Donald Trump to reopen TSA and end the long lines and delays at airports. It would fund all of the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE, which Democrats have refused to support without new limitations on immigration enforcement operations, two sources with knowledge of the conversation told NBC News. White House aides initially conveyed the idea to Trump and, after that briefing, Thune spoke with the president, the two sources said. Thune discussed the idea with Republicans on Capitol Hill, one of the sources said. The second source said it’s seen by numerous Republicans as a viable path to break the logjam. ICE would be funded separately by Republicans in a party-line “reconciliation” bill that can pass without the need for any Democratic support later in the year. The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for more than a month, and while key operations, such as TSA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are still operating, many of those employees are working without pay. As NBC News reported this weekend, more than 400 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is also shut down, but its employees are being paid through Trump’s big beautiful bill passed last year. Democrats are determined to sink the SAVE America Act, which doesn’t have enough support to pass. And Republicans have made clear they lack the votes to nuke the filibuster. They may, however, cancel recess if there’s still no deal by the end of this week. Speaking Monday in Memphis, Tennessee, the president doubled down on his demands to pair Homeland Security funding with the voting bill. “You don’t have to take a fast vote. Don’t worry about Easter, going home. In fact, make this one for Jesus. OK, make this one for Jesus,” Trump said, adding: “The most important part of homeland security is voter ID and proof of citizenship. Nobody can vote on Homeland Security without voter ID or proof of citizenship.” If Trump were to change his mind and accept the Thune-GOP idea, it carries benefits for both parties. For Republicans, they could avoid giving into Democratic demands, such as requiring immigration enforcement officers to remove their masks and requiring judicial warrants to conduct raids. For Democrats, they could keep their fingerprints off ICE funding, which has become toxic with their base since Homeland Security agents killed protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [3/23/2026 1:40 PM, Staff, 38315K]
CNN [3/23/2026 4:30 PM, Lauren Fox and Alayna Treene, 19874K]
USA Today [3/23/2026 6:56 PM, Zachary Schermele, 70643K]
NewsMax [3/23/2026 3:21 PM, Staff, 3760K]
DailySignal [3/23/2026 5:45 PM, Virginia Grace McKinnon, 474K]

The New York Times [3/23/2026 6:52 PM, Erica L. Green and Michael Gold, 148038K] reports President Trump said on Monday that Republicans should stop negotiating with Democrats to end the partial government shutdown and instead focus on passing voting legislation, even as Transportation Security Administration agents work without paychecks and lines at some airports stretch for hours. “I’m suggesting strongly to the Republican Party, don’t make any deal on anything,” Mr. Trump said during a crime reduction event in Memphis. He suggested that he would use the standoff over funding for the Department of Homeland Security as leverage to pass his voter ID bill, which he says is necessary to combat voter fraud by noncitizens — something that is exceedingly rare. “Don’t make any deal on anything unless you include voter ID,” Mr. Trump said, referring to a bill that he calls the SAVE America Act. As the midterm elections near and Republicans face an uphill climb to keep control of Congress, Mr. Trump has repeatedly amplified unfounded claims that American elections are rife with fraud. Critics of the SAVE America Act say it would suppress and discourage legal voting, particularly among groups that typically support Democrats, such as naturalized citizens, people of color and lower-income people. The measure, they say, places an undue burden on eligible voters who may lack the necessary documentation to comply with requirements that they submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote and show identification at the polls. As Mr. Trump pushes for the bill’s passage, the partial government shutdown is continuing. Democrats’ demands include blocking immigration officers from wearing masks to shield their identities and requiring them to obtain warrants from judges to enter private homes or businesses. Talks between Senate Democrats and the White House had been deadlocked for weeks with little progress, but there were signs in recent days that lawmakers and Trump administration officials were open to reaching a deal, particularly as delays at airport security checkpoints spiraled. Hours later, Mr. Trump abruptly called for Republicans to abandon the talks. In a social media post, he called on Senator John Thune, the majority leader, to publicly identify Republican holdouts, “kill the filibuster” and work through the Easter holiday. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that Mr. Thune had reached out to Mr. Trump over the weekend to suggest that there be a bill to fund everything but ICE, as negotiations continued, which the president rejected. The Washington Times [3/23/2026 9:04 AM, Jeff Mordock, 1323K] reports “I don’t think we should make any deal with the crazy, country destroying radical left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote the Republicans to pass “THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Mr. Trump posted late Sunday on Truth Social, referring to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. “It is far more important than anything else we are doing in the Senate and that includes giving these same terrible people, the Dems (who are to blame for this mess!), a five billion cut in ICE funding, a deal, which even disguised as something else, is unacceptable to me and the American people — UNLESS it includes their approval of Voter I.D. (with picture!), Citizenship to Vote, No Mail-in Voting (with exceptions), all paper ballots, No Men in Women’s sports, and no transgender mutilization of our precious children,” he posted. Senate Democrats on Saturday killed a Republican-sponsored amendment to the SAVE America Act that would prohibit transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports, an issue that Republicans plan to highlight in this year’s midterm elections. The Senate’s debate on the SAVE America Act is set to enter its second week, as Mr. Trump and his allies in the upper chamber ramp up pressure to pass the measure. Despite the full-court press, the bill is expected to fail because some Democratic support is needed to overcome a filibuster in the closely divided Senate. No Democrat is expected to back the bill.

Roll Call [3/23/2026 5:30 PM, Paul M. Krawzak and Aris Folley, 673K] reports an attempt by Senate GOP leaders to reopen the Department of Homeland Security while punting on immigration enforcement funding blew up within hours, after President Donald Trump issued an angry rejection of the proposal Sunday night. Hoping to find a bipartisan fix for ending a one-month partial shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., asked Trump to consider a plan that would allow Congress to pass full-year funding for the beleaguered department except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Democrats would get a key piece of what they’ve been angling for: full-year funding for critical agencies like the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency, while ICE would have to wait until there’s a bipartisan deal on immigration enforcement policies. Democrats have also demanded to drop Customs and Border Protection from the package and negotiate that separately along with ICE; it wasn’t immediately clear whether CBP was addressed in Thune’s offer. Republicans could provide ICE funding through a second filibuster-proof reconciliation bill to enact more partisan policies, and without the immigration enforcement overhaul Democrats have been seeking. At minimum, Democrats wouldn’t have to cast politically difficult votes to fund ICE. This is a strategy that some Senate Republicans have been floating in recent days to break the logjam, as airport wait times across the country get worse. Nearly 12 percent of the TSA security workforce, which isn’t getting paid during the partial shutdown, called out of work on Saturday, according to the agency. But within hours of learning of the plan, Trump rejected it in a broadside against both parties on his Truth Social media platform, where he reverted to his push for a controversial voter identification bill that would require proof of U.S. citizenship, through a birth certificate or passport, to register to vote. Trump’s rejection of Thune’s attempt at compromise means lawmakers are going back to the drawing board to find a way out of the DHS standoff.

NewsMax [3/23/2026 1:05 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K] reports that with the SAVE America Act stalled in the U.S. Senate, the Republican National Committee has turned to the courts to ensure only American citizens vote in U.S. elections. Facing long odds of overcoming the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, the RNC has launched an aggressive legal strategy aimed at reshaping election rules nationwide, one case at a time. The effort mirrors the goals of the SAVE America Act, which would require voter ID and proof of citizenship to register, but bypasses Congress entirely, the Washington Examiner reported. The RNC is currently involved in more than 100 legal cases across 30 states, targeting issues such as voter ID laws, mail-in ballot procedures, voter roll accuracy, and noncitizen voting. "We’re fighting to uphold commonsense measures backed by over 80% of Americans," RNC Election Integrity Communications Director Ally Triolo told the Examiner. "This is about protecting the ballot box and restoring trust in our elections." At the center of the legal push is a high-stakes Supreme Court case, Watson v. RNC, which could have sweeping implications for mail-in voting nationwide. The RNC is challenging laws in states such as Mississippi that allow ballots to be counted if they arrive after Election Day as long as they are postmarked on time. The Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments and appeared poised to reject Mississippi’s mail-in ballot law, The New York Times reported. Republicans argue that federal law clearly establishes Election Day as the deadline for casting ballots and that extended counting periods undermine election integrity and public confidence.

Politico [3/23/2026 3:42 PM, Myah Ward and Jordain Carney, 21784K] reports the White House is holding off on further DHS funding negotiations until the Senate confirms Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin to lead the agency, according to a White House official, granted anonymity to share internal thinking. Democrats have previously canceled meetings, and given Mullin is close to confirmation, the official said, aides to President Donald Trump believe it’s better to wait so he can be a “full and active” participant in funding talks from the DHS side. The White House earlier in the day rejected a Monday morning meeting with a bipartisan group of senators who have been negotiating to end the DHS shutdown. Democrats had previously declined a Saturday meeting. The Senate is scheduled to vote on Mullin’s confirmation shortly before 8 p.m. Monday. Some Senate Republicans are aiming to meet with Trump on Monday night to discuss the DHS funding situation, although no meeting has been officially scheduled. The meeting, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, would be to try to pitch Trump on a plan to fund all of DHS except specific pieces of ICE, which have already been funded through last year’s megabill. Trump was in Memphis, Tenn., earlier in the day, attending an anti-crime event and paying a visit to Graceland, Elvis Presley’s former home. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he expected additional meetings Monday but declined to say who was involved: “Conversations continue,” he said.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [3/23/2026 4:57 PM, Sam Barron, 3760K]

FOX News [3/23/2026 6:30 PM, Elizabeth Elkind, 37576K] reports Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is ratcheting up pressure on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats in the upper chamber as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown creeps into a sixth week with no end in sight. House GOP leaders are poised to hold votes Thursday on a pair of bills aimed at putting Democrats on the spot for the shutdown, Fox News Digital has learned. Johnson is having the House vote for a third time on funding DHS through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The bill is based on a bipartisan deal struck earlier this year, but Democrats walked away from it en masse in protest of President Donald Trump’s strategy to crack down on illegal immigration. The second measure is a nonbinding resolution led by Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., expressing support for all agencies under DHS’s purview. It comes as the DHS shutdown, now in its 38th day, is wreaking havoc for airline travelers across the country. Major airports in Houston, New Orleans, New York City, and other areas are seeing hours-long delays caused by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staffing shortages, with scores of TSA agents calling out of work amid missed paychecks due to the shutdown. TSA agents are poised to miss their paychecks this Friday, the second full pay period missed of the ongoing shutdown. The TSA is one of several agencies that operate under DHS, along with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), among others. "Anyone waiting for hours just to miss their flights will not soon forget, and Republicans are going to continue reminding Americans that it’s the Democrats putting their safety at risk just to protect criminal illegal aliens," a House GOP leadership aide told Fox News Digital on Monday.

NewsMax [3/23/2026 7:54 PM, Michael Katz, 3760K] reports Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Newsmax on Monday he is prepared to pursue a backup plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security through budget reconciliation, a move that would bypass Democrats and break from the traditional appropriations process. "What we have now is mess, murk and mayhem, at least in the Senate," Kennedy told Newsmax congressional correspondent Kilmeny Duchardt. "It’s as bad as I’ve ever seen it," Kennedy said. Kennedy said he and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had initially proposed a two-step plan to reopen the government, accepting Democrats’ offer to fund all agencies except Immigration and Customs Enforcement, then using reconciliation to fully fund ICE with Republican votes. But that approach was scrapped after President Donald Trump signaled he would veto any deal with Democrats. "The president said no deals, none, zero, zilch, nada with the Democrats," Kennedy said. As a result, Kennedy said he is now pursuing a "Plan B" that would fund DHS agencies entirely through reconciliation, including ICE, the Secret Service, U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Transportation Security Administration. "Let’s just do the whole damn thing through reconciliation," he said. "We don’t need a single Democratic vote," he asserted. The proposal comes as lawmakers face mounting pressure to resolve funding concerns affecting DHS, which has been partially shut down since Feb. 14 over Democrats’ demands for changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. But immigration enforcement operations remain fully funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Daily Wire [3/23/2026 1:44 PM, Cameron Arcand, 2314K] reports President Donald Trump rejected a pitch to fund other agencies under the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE, multiple sources confirmed to The Daily Wire on Monday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated to the president that Senate Republicans and some Democrats would back the pitch in hopes of ending the shutdown that started in mid-February, according to Punchbowl News. In exchange, funding for ICE would be handled through a future reconciliation bill that would only need Republican votes to pass, the report noted. "I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,’" Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday. A source familiar with the talks said that there is a "bipartisan negotiation train that is still working" that met with White House border czar Tom Homan last week. In addition, one GOP Senate staffer indicated to The Daily Wire that Democrats are "letting go potentially of judicial warrants and face masks" in exchange for not allowing further ICE funding through the appropriations process, with some exceptions like Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The staffer noted that it could be a "true compromise" because Republicans already have much of what they want for ICE funding with the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" signed by Trump last year. Democrats backed out of a meeting with White House staff on Saturday, according to a GOP Senate staffer on background, and the White House did not end up meeting with Senate Democrats on Monday. As for the Monday meeting, the White House said that it has to do with Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-OK) likely confirmation to become DHS secretary on Monday night. "Given that Democrats turned down a previous meeting and that Mullin is likely to be confirmed tonight, it seemed appropriate to wait until after his confirmation to allow him to be a full participant in ongoing conversations," a White House official told The Daily Wire on background Monday.

Breitbart [3/23/2026 12:12 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports that Kristi Noem visited Honduras in her new role as US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for his "Shield of the Americas" regional crime-fighting initiative, after being fired from her position as homeland security chief. The 54-year-old made the trip on Sunday and met with Honduras’s new right-wing president, Nasry Asfura, he told press afterward. A former congresswoman and governor of South Dakota, Noem was one of the leading faces of Trump’s controversial immigration crackdown since his return to power in January 2025. Trump announced earlier this month that she would be removed and take up the role of special envoy to the "Shield of the Americas," a coalition with 17 Latin American nations — so far — aimed at countering cartels. According to multiple media reports, Trump was upset with Noem’s handling of the mass immigration crackdown in Minnesota, during which federal immigration agents shot dead two Americans. "It was a meeting…with a very positive reception," Asfura said after the talks at the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa. Honduras is one of the most violent countries in Central America, with gangs including Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 — designated as terrorist organizations by Washington — in operation. Issues including security and migration were discussed to "work together and build a more prosperous America," Asfura said.

FOX News [3/23/2026 12:26 PM, Breanne Deppisch Fox, 37576K] reports a federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plans to deport Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from the U.S. to a third country — stopping, for now, the government’s stated plans to swiftly remove him to the West African nation of Liberia. The temporary order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis keeps in place two previous orders she issued blocking the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Abrego Garcia from the U.S. for a second time to a third country. It comes just days after ICE Director Todd Lyons asked Xinis to dissolve her injunction, citing what he said were the government’s plans to swiftly remove Abrego Garcia to Liberia. Lyons told the court Friday that DHS had decided to "disregard" Abrego’s request to be removed to the third country of Costa Rica, citing his failure to cite the country as his preferred country of removal during a 2019 hearing before an immigration judge. "Neither the statute nor the regulations permit an alien to designate a country of removal beyond the initial opportunity granted in removal proceedings," Lyons said. "If, as here, an alien were permitted to designate a country of removal years after the conclusion of removal proceedings, an alien could avoid ever being removed by endlessly designating new countries of removal," he added. Lyons also cited negotiations the U.S. and Liberia allegedly engaged in regarding Abrego Garcia’s removal, and argued that abandoning those negotiations could "cast doubt on the diplomatic reliability of the United States.” Abrego Garcia’s status has been at the center of a legal and political maelstrom since March, when he was deported to his home country of El Salvador, in violation of a 2019 court order and in what Trump officials acknowledge was an "administrative error.” The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the new updates in the case. The temporary stay comes as Trump officials have been sharply critical of Xinis and other federal judges presiding over deportation cages, whom they have repeatedly accused of overstepping their authorities and acting as "activist" judges. The Department of Homeland Security has stressed that Abrego Garcia had been living in the U.S. illegally and have blasted news reports describing him as a "Maryland man." They have also cited what they alleged are his ties to the MS-13 gang, which lawyers for Abrego Garcia have denied.

NBC News [3/23/2026 3:09 PM, David K. Li, Ava Kelley and Christian Farr, 42967K] reports a Chicago man arrested for allegedly gunning down a Loyola University student was in the country illegally and captured in part because of his "distinct" limp, officials said Monday. Sheridan Gorman, 18, was killed shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday near Tobey Prinz Beach Park, less than a mile from campus, police said. Jose Medina, 25, was arrested Friday night and booked on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and other gun-related charges in connection with the fatal shooting of Gorman, who was from the New York City suburb of Yorktown Heights. Medina did not appear in court on Monday as he was taken to the hospital and treated for tuberculosis, police said. The suspect wore black clothes and a black mask when he allegedly shot Gorman in the back in the early morning hours of Thursday, according to a Chicago police arrest report released on Monday. Witnesses described and nearby security cameras showed the suspect "walking with a distinct limp and slow gait," according to the report. Cameras then caught Medina entering his apartment house on N. Sheridan Road, and a building engineer identified the suspect as a resident, the police report said. Police found clothing and shoes inside Medina’s apartment that appeared to match what the shooter was wearing, a prosecutor said. Officers also found a .40-caliber handgun, which was consistent with the round that killed Gorman, according to the state. A judge ruled there was probable cause to push the prosecution forward and hold the defendant in custody. Medina had been previously "apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol and released into the country," according to a Department of Homeland Security statement.

Washington Examiner [3/23/2026 12:23 PM, Claire Carter, 1147K] reports the suspect charged in the fatal shooting of a Loyola University Chicago student was in the United States illegally, the Department of Homeland Security said. Jose Medina-Medina, 25, was arrested by Chicago police on a charge of first-degree murder for allegedly killing 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, a freshman from New York, while walking with friends early Thursday near Lake Michigan. Police said the shooting took place around 1:30 a.m. along the lakefront near Tobey Prinz Beach, where a masked gunman approached the group and opened fire, striking Gorman in the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene, and officials have said the attack did not target her specifically. Chicago police said Medina-Medina was arrested after investigators used surveillance footage and witness accounts to identify him shortly after the shooting. He faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, three counts of aggravated assault/discharge of a firearm, and one felony count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon/no Firearm Owner’s Identification Card. Federal officials said Medina-Medina migrated from Venezuela and entered the U.S. illegally in 2023, according to DHS statements reported by multiple outlets. The case has quickly entered the national debate over immigration policy. DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis said Gorman was "failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians.” Medina-Medina had previously been arrested on shoplifting charges but was released, DHS said. Following DHS’s release of information, Gorman’s family condemned the policies that allowed Medina-Medina to be released. "We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime," the family said in a statement. "When systems fail—whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act—the consequences are not abstract. They are real. And in our case, they are permanent.” DHS also said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer request to ensure the suspect remains in custody during the criminal proceedings.

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [3/23/2026 1:38 PM, Jack Cowhick, 803K]

FOX News [3/23/2026 4:08 PM, Adam Sabes and CB Cotton, 37576K] Video: HERE reports the illegal immigrant accused of murdering a college student in Chicago has a criminal record and entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to officials. Twenty-five-year-old Jose Medina, a Venezuelan national, was arrested on Friday after he allegedly killed Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student in a shooting. A police source earlier told Fox News that the Thursday shooting was an apparent ambush, adding that the suspect was reportedly wearing some kind of face mask or covering. He was arrested in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, close to where the shooting took place. Medina was expected in court on Monday afternoon, but the hearing was postponed since he’s still hospitalized. Chicago police sources said he was being quarantined for something that’s suspected to be contagious, possibly Tuberculosis. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [3/23/2026 9:06 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K] reports the Department of Homeland Security has asked sanctuary politicians in Chicago not to release a Venezuelan illegal alien charged with the murder of an 18-year-old college student. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged a detainer for Jose Medina-Medina, a 25-year-old Venezuelan national accused of fatally shooting Loyola University Chicago freshman Sheridan Gorman, DHS announced. The agency is urging Illinois officials, including Gov. JB Pritzker, to ensure the suspect is not released back into the community. According to Chicago police, Medina-Medina faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and aggravated discharge of a firearm in the March attack near Loyola’s campus along Lake Michigan. Authorities say Gorman, 18, was walking with friends around 1 a.m. when a masked gunman approached and opened fire, killing her at the scene, ABC7 reported. Friends and family described Gorman as kind, generous, and full of life. She had been out with friends hoping to catch a glimpse of the northern lights when tragedy struck. Federal officials say the suspect had multiple prior encounters with law enforcement but was repeatedly released. DHS said Medina-Medina was first apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol in May 2023 and released into the country under Biden administration policies. He was arrested again in Chicago just weeks later for shoplifting but was released again. "Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life," Acting Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. "She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who released this illegal alien twice before he went on to commit this heinous murder.”

FOX News [3/23/2026 3:33 PM, Max Bacall, 37576K] reports as the suspect in the killing of Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman heads to court, scrutiny is growing over the policies her family said left the accused in a position to commit the crime. Jose Medina-Medina, the 25-year-old Venezuelan national charged with Gorman’s murder, entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration before being apprehended and released into the country, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Sunday. DHS also confirmed that Medina had been previously arrested for shoplifting in Chicago. Gorman’s family demanded complete accountability, rejecting the idea of "second chances that put others at risk."

Daily Wire [3/23/2026 9:28 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 2314K] reports that President Donald Trump on Monday slammed the Biden administration’s "open door" policies for the release of an illegal immigrant suspected of murdering 18-year-old college student Sheridan Gorman. Trump’s comments came after 25-year-old Jose Medina-Medina, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was charged in the killing of Gorman, a student at Loyola University Chicago. Authorities say Medina approached Gorman on Thursday while she was watching the Northern Lights near a lakefront pier and opened fire, striking her as she tried to flee. "It’s devastating. These people were let in by Biden. We’re getting them out. We’re getting them out fast. That’s why ICE is so important. They are doing such a good job," Trump told Daily Wire reporter Mary Margaret Olohan, part of the presidential press pool, on Monday morning. "This animal, I saw the whole thing last night. They gave me a briefing." Medina was released into the United States in May 2023 and had previously faced shoplifting charges, according to authorities. He was released by local officials following that incident. "This person came in through the open-door policy of Joe Biden. We’re taking them out by the tens of thousands. We’re doing a great job. It’s a shame. They’ve hurt our country," Trump said. Leftist Chicago Alderman Maria Hadden described the incident as Gorman being "at the wrong place at the wrong time." Gorman’s family pushed back, saying she was in a safe area. The Department of Homeland Security has urged Chicago officials not to release Medina.

FOX News [3/23/2026 3:40 PM, Charles Creitz, 37576K] reports Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker office broke its silence on the murder of Loyola University freshman Sheridan Gorman, who was allegedly killed by Venezuelan national Jose Medina-Medina, telling Fox News Digital they are grieving the young woman’s death and that President Donald Trump is wrongly politicizing tragedies like it. Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old from Yorktown Heights, New York, was shot and killed while admiring the aurora borealis along Lake Michigan, with her death initially leading to outrage from everywhere but Springfield. Pritzker, however, did not respond to a second question on whether he would instruct Illinois authorities to abide by the Laken Riley Act and hold illegal immigrants, including Medina-Medina, until the feds can pick them up. ICE issued a detainer for Medina-Medina over the weekend, but Chicago is a sanctuary jurisdiction and the state enforces the TRUST Act – a law passed through the Democratic-majority legislature in Springfield and signed by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican. Medina-Medina is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated discharge of a weapon and aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon. Medina-Medina was due in court Monday for a detention hearing, but was being quarantined, leading the judge to continue the case, as Chicago police sources told Fox News the illegal immigrant could possibly have tuberculosis.

New York Post [3/23/2026 3:30 PM, Steven Vago and Alex Oliveira, 40934K] reports the "shattered" mother of a New York teen murdered near her Chicago university vowed to get "justice" for daughter — but refused to even acknowledge the migrant gunman accused of executing her in front of her friends. Sheridan was killed Thursday around 1:30 a.m. near Chicago’s Tobey Prinz Beach, where she and friends from school were trying to catch a glimpse of the northern lights. That’s when a masked man jumped out of the shadows and pulled out a gun, and when the group fled he fired a single shot that struck Sheridan in the head and killed her. Medina-Medina was quickly arrested after security cameras caught the entire attack, and filmed him walking off into an apartment building where he was seen removing his mask. The suspect crossed the border illegally in May 2023 under former President Joe Biden, and was released into the country. He was then arrested for shoplifting from a Macy’s in Chicago, but was let go under the city’s sanctuary policies. Medina-Medina was due in court Monday for a detention hearing, but it was cancelled after he was hospitalized so he could be treated for tuberculosis. He is charged with first degree murder, and weapons charges.

The Hill [3/23/2026 4:09 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18170K] reports the Trump-aligned company tasked with creating the $220 million ad featuring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem got a $60,000 signing bonus for making the commercial, during which time it spent $20,000 on horse rentals, lawmakers revealed Monday. The breakdown, secured as part of an investigation from Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), offers new details about the expenses behind the no-bid contract that showed Noem riding horses in front of Mount Rushmore while urging migrants to leave the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded Safe America Media the $143 million contract for the ad, which then turned to subcontractor the Strategy Group to carry out its production. The Strategy Group was involved with Noem’s 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial race, and the company’s CEO is married to former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. Noem aide Corey Lewandowski has also worked with the firm. The documents obtained at the senators’ request show the Strategy Group got a $60,000 signing bonus for its work, while a vendor that rents horses was awarded $20,000. The review also found the company spent just less than $4,000 on hair and makeup. Labor costs accounted for about $107,000 of the contract, while production costs were just more than $53,000. In total, the ad cost the group $286,137 to make, though the Strategy Group previously wrote on the social platform X that it received “$226,137.17 total for 5 film shoots, 45 produced video advertisements and 6 produced radio advertisements” as a subcontractor for Safe America. Trump, shortly before firing Noem, said he “never knew” of the plans for the ad. The New York Post [3/23/2026 6:23 PM, Victor Nava, 40934K] reports "This looks like waste, fraud, and abuse to me," Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said after reviewing the breakdown of the ad’s production costs. A partial invoice provided to Welch and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) showed The Strategy Group Company spent $20,000 on horse rentals for the ad; $3,781 on hair and makeup; $52,599 on videography, photography and production vendors; $41,852 on "other vendors.” The Strategy Group Company billed $107,405 for labor costs, and $60,000 for a "signing bonus," according to the senators. A South Dakota magic store was also paid $500 by the subcontractor. "While leading the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem and her senior team allowed tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to be spent on wasteful production costs, a shady signing bonus, and a very expensive horse rental — and that’s just what we know so far," Welch said. Safe America Media secured a $143 million no-bid contract from the Department of Homeland Security in February 2025 to produce and place the spots. The company incorporated in Delaware around a week before inking the contract, ProPublica first reported in November. A subcontract worth more than $286,000 went to The Strategy Group Company to shoot Noem’s Mount Rushmore ad, which promised an "American dream … as big as these endless skies" to immigrants entering the US legally — and deportation for those coming illegally. The political consulting firm is run by Ben Yoho, the husband of ex-DHS chief spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Reported similarly:
CNN [3/23/2026 12:51 PM, Michael Williams, 612K]

NBC News [3/23/2026 4:24 PM, Laura Strickler and Julia Ainsley, 42967K] reports Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have launched a new inquiry into outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s top aide, Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly sought personal payments from contractors, as was outlined in an NBC News investigation last week. On Monday, House Oversight Democrats sent a letter to the private prison company GEO Group asking it to disclose details of meetings and conversations Lewandowski had with the firm both before the transition period after President Donald Trump was elected in 2024 and during 2025. Lewandowski denied allegations he sought payments in exchange for favorable contract decisions. GEO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. GEO Group is the largest owner of detention centers in the United States, and the company plays a major role in Trump’s mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants. The firm holds more than a billion dollars worth of contracts with DHS. “Corey Lewandowski appears to have engaged in deep-rooted corruption at the Department of Homeland Security, and this massive pay-to-play scheme should concern all Americans. We need answers directly from any companies Lewandowski was soliciting. Oversight Democrats are going to root out this corruption at DHS, and we won’t stop until there’s accountability,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement. The NBC News investigation last week revealed that GEO Group and several other companies in government contracting have complained to officials in Trump’s inner circle that Lewandowski, as a special government employee, has directly or indirectly stood to personally profit from the DHS contracting process, according to four senior White House officials, a former White House official and a person familiar with the conversations. When Trump won the election in 2024, GEO Group seemed well-positioned for a windfall of contracts and its stock price soared to a record high of $35.05 in the days before the inauguration. But when contracts did not materialize at the expected amount, its stock price fell to $16.43 as of mid-March. Two contracts shrank after it allegedly declined to pay Lewandowski a fee for new contracts, and sources say GEO Group believes it was a result of not agreeing to Lewandowski’s solicitations. Lewandowski has been serving at DHS as a special government employee since January 2025. The DHS Office of General Counsel told NBC News that Lewandowski submitted a financial disclosure form to the agency but because of his status as a special government employee, it is not required to be publicly released. One legal expert told NBC News that if a special government employee sought payment from a company in exchange for positive contract awards, it would raise “bright red flags of illegality.” The DHS inspector general is investigating the awarding of a $220 million advertising contract without full and open competition to two companies. One of those companies subcontracted work to a firm called The Strategy Group that worked with Noem when she was governor of South Dakota. The CEO of that firm is married to the former spokesperson for DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.

Washington Examiner [3/23/2026 2:16 PM, Staff, 1147K] reports that President Donald Trump said Monday that National Guard members deployed as part of his national crime initiative will begin receiving active-duty benefits. Trump announced the move during a visit to Tennessee to highlight the work of the Memphis Safe Task Force, described by White House officials as "a decisive, aggressive federal intervention involving the National Guard and a host of federal agencies." "The secretary of war just signed a directive to ensure that all National Guard members serving on this task force, as well as in D.C., New Orleans, and our border security missions, will receive the same benefits as active duty troops," Trump said. "Because you deserve it." Typically, National Guard members receive part-time pay and subsidized healthcare options and then active-duty benefits while on deployment. Active-duty military members receive full-time pay, subsidized housing, no-cost healthcare, tuition assistance, and retirement plans. White House officials declined to comment on Trump’s announcement upgrading the benefits for National Guard members. The Pentagon did not respond to questions about the upgrade in benefits. A White House official told the Washington Examiner that the Memphis task force has made upwards of 7,400 arrests and seized more than 1,200 illegal firearms off Memphis’ streets. 2025 was Memphis’s first year with fewer than 200 recorded murders since 2019, a 40% drop compared to the year prior.

Reuters [3/23/2026 1:27 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports that U.S. immigration judges held 70% fewer hearings last month to determine whether people detained as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations should be released on bond, a data analysis released on Monday showed. Federal data analyzed by the group Mobile Pathways showed that in February, immigration judges held only 1,337 bond hearings nationwide, down from 4,479 in January. Only 326 people were granted bond, compared to 1,086 a month prior, the data showed. "Such a steep drop in bond hearings is unprecedented, unexpected, and deeply troubling," Bartlomiej Skorupa, Mobile Pathways’ co-founder, said in a statement. "It suggests a systemic shift that cuts off access to ⁠justice for detained immigrants." The Berkeley, California-based non-profit organization analyzes immigration court data and promotes access to justice for immigrants. Its analysis was based on data from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts. The Justice Department declined to comment. Bucking a long-standing interpretation of immigration law, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security last year took the position that non-citizens already residing in the United States, and not only those who arrive at a port of entry at the border, qualify as "applicants for admission" to the United States and are subject to mandatory detention. Hundreds of federal judges have rejected that interpretation of the law and ordered that detainees be granted bond hearings before immigration judges, who are not part of the judiciary but instead employees of ⁠the U.S. Department of Justice.

Reuters [3/23/2026 3:00 PM, Daniel Wiessner and Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports two former immigration judges, who were among dozens fired after President Donald Trump took office last year, appealed a federal labor board ruling on Monday that upheld the U.S. Attorney General’s authority to terminate ​them, their lawyers said. Lawyers for Brandon Jaroch and Megan Jackler said they had filed a petition asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to ‌reverse a Friday ruling by the Republican-controlled Merit Systems Protection Board that they claimed could redefine the scope of presidential authority over the federal civil service. On Friday, the board rejected claims by Jaroch and Jackler that its ruling in the case would apply to federal workers far beyond immigration judges. The case, the board said, was "a classic as-applied challenge" that ​only considered the specific nature of the ​positions held by Jaroch and Jackler. More than ⁠22,500 appeals have been filed with the merit board since Trump took office last year and moved to downsize the federal workforce, including through the Department of Government Efficiency initially led by Elon Musk. Before that, the board typically received a few thousand complaints each year. Trump ​last year fired MSPB Chair Cathy Harris, a Democrat, in an unprecedented move that paralyzed the board and prompted her to ​sue. A federal judge ⁠reinstated Harris but that ruling was paused and, in December, reversed by an appeals court. Harris has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. The court is expected to rule soon on whether Trump had the power to fire a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission, and its decision will likely have some impact on Harris’ case.

New York Post [3/23/2026 7:17 PM, Daniel McCarthy, 40934K] reports Democrats who want to defund ICE aren’t getting away with the political hostage-taking they’re using to do it. They’re trying to hold the Transportation Security Administration’s funding hostage until their demands for weakening Immigration and Customs Enforcement are met. That means they’re also subjecting millions of air travelers to added anxiety, and worse, as security-line wait times stretch into hours. On Saturday, half the nation’s busiest airports — in New York City, Houston and Atlanta — had more than a third of TSA agents call out sick. Passengers at LaGuardia were in line for up to three hours on Sunday — not because of the fatal Air Canada accident late that evening, but because TSA was understaffed all day. Instead of gutting immigration enforcement, he’s sent ICE into more than a dozen of the nation’s busiest airports to make up for TSA’s missing manpower. Democrats, predictably, are furious — and fearmongering to the nth degree. "The last thing the American people need is for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports across the country, potentially to brutalize or to kill them," House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries frothed on CNN’s "State of the Union.” If Jeffries and his party succeed in chipping away at ICE, more Americans like 18-year-old Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman will die.

New York Post [3/23/2026 9:30 PM, Andrew Arthur, 40934K] reports an immigration judge has denied asylum to the family of young Ecuadoran national Liam Conejo Ramos, the boy photographed in a bunny hat as he was detained with his father by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis. The case highlights everything wrong with the Biden administration’s policy of treating all illegal entrants as "asylum-seekers.” Even under Trump II, the US has the most generous immigration system in the world. An average of 1 million-plus immigrants receive green cards each year, allowing them to live here permanently and placing them on a path to citizenship. And more than 130 million times per annum, aliens are admitted as "nonimmigrants" with permission to enter and stay temporarily as tourists, students, shoppers and for business. For the Biden administration, however, it wasn’t enough: To advance "equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity," the Department of Homeland Security under impeached Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas opened the borders and welcomed nearly 8 million illegal aliens into the United States. Former President Joe Biden treated them all as "asylum-seekers," even though they likely didn’t qualify as such. The Ramos family reportedly arrived during the last month of the prior administration and were ushered in to pursue their claims even though it appears they had no legal documents — and that few Ecuadoran nationals are granted asylum. Asylum is a lavish exception to our already generous legal immigration system. Aliens who receive that protection are placed on a path to green cards, and ultimately citizenship. But the standards for granting asylum are strict: Aliens must show they’ve been persecuted or have a "well-founded fear of persecution" on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. "Economic migrants" aren’t eligible, and if the US granted asylum to everyone seeking a "better life," nearly all the world’s population would qualify. It’s unclear what dangers the Ramos family claimed they feared.

Washington Times [3/23/2026 5:16 PM, Emilio T. Gonzalez, 1323K] reports on April 1, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on President Trump’s Executive Order 14160, ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. In the decades-old debate over immigration, the issue of birthright citizenship stands out as the most contentious. Current law on citizenship is based on interpretations of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” This amendment was specially created to ensure that freed slaves and their children could not be denied citizenship after the Civil War. Created in 1868, the 14th Amendment provided a constitutional anchor to the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Drafters and sponsors of both were clear that their intent was to grant citizenship to those owing no allegiance to a foreign power. Citizenship was further refined (and complicated) by the Supreme Court’s 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Wong, born in the U.S. of legal Chinese residents, was denied entry into the U.S. when returning from a trip abroad. The resulting Supreme Court decision affirmed Wong’s citizenship and that of all children born in the United States. Noteworthy is that his parents had not become citizens, and that the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited it. This decision has been established as law since 1898. The ruling never contemplated conferring the benefits of citizenship on the offspring of those who were illegally present in the United States and may be of questionable loyalty, or whose political sympathies are antithetical to our democracy. Today’s issues of birth tourism and international surrogacy diminish the spirit and intent of the congressional sponsors. Birthright citizenship has exceptions. Children born to foreign diplomats and children born to enemy forces during a hostile occupation of the U.S. are excluded. In an interesting dichotomy, children born of legally accredited diplomats are excluded, but children born of illegally present individuals are not. Birthright citizenship has spawned a huge business ecosystem and brought with it equally huge abuses. U.S. citizenship can even be obtained without entering the continental United States. Residents of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, both U.S. territories, are, upon birth, automatic U.S. citizens. The government of the Northern Mariana Islands has reported a significant increase in births to Chinese residents. Under an unusual agreement with the Biden administration, Chinese travelers to the Northern Mariana Islands are allowed to enter without a visa.

USA Today [3/23/2026 1:11 PM, Rex Huppke, 70643K] reports Federal immigration agents, hot off their success at being widely despised on the streets of American cities, will soon be loitering around airport security lines to lend a not-helping hand. This is great news if you’re a fan of chaos. It’s less-great news if you’re a fan of going to the airport and getting somewhere in a safe and timely fashion without being kidnapped and wrongly deported to an El Salvadoran prison. President Donald Trump announced this extremely not-wise plan on March 22. That same day, White House border czar Tom Homan went on CNN and said, “I’m currently working on the plan. … We’ll put together a plan today and we’ll execute it tomorrow.” Wow, one whole day to plan the movement of immigration agents not trained in airport security to hundreds of airports across the country? That might be more time than they spent planning the Iran war. I’m sure it’s plenty! Transportation Security Administration airport checkpoints have been dramatically backed up lately because congressional Democrats won’t fund the Department of Homeland Security unless Republicans reform the reckless agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Those would be the same agents who have mistakenly deported U.S. citizens, beaten the snot out of innocent protesters and, in several cases, shot and killed Americans. The reform Democrats are seeking involves quaint things like “warrants,” “wearing proper identification” and “not racially profiling people.” They offered to fund TSA separately, but Republicans voted no. With DHS unfunded, TSA workers aren’t getting paid. Hundreds have quit, and many others are calling in sick.

USA Today [3/24/2026 4:04 AM, Chris Brennan, 67103K] reports the Republicans in control of Congress – for now – face many concerns as November’s midterm elections loom. And President Donald Trump keeps placing himself at the top of their list of concerns, to the benefit of Democrats who hope to seize control of the House and Senate in those elections. Over the weekend, for instance, Trump took some time off from having no definable plan for his war in Iran to show that he also has no viable solution for problems here at home as a partial government shutdown causes problems at airports. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been trying to negotiate an agreement to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security – except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement – which would restart payment of salaries for Transportation Security Administration employees who work at airports. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, presented a version of that plan on March 22 to Trump, who rejected it, according to Punchbowl News. Presented with a solution, Trump instead insisted on making the problem worse. He demanded that his administration scramble to send ICE agents to 13 airports around the country and set an ultimatum for ending the shutdown: that the Senate pass his so-called SAVE America Act, which would make it harder for some Americans to vote. Trump doubled down on March 23 while speaking in Memphis, telling Republicans in Congress, "Don’t make any deal on anything" before passing the SAVE America Act. And he made it very weird, telling the Republican lawmakers they should work through their break for Easter – 12 days from now – and "make this one for Jesus, OK?" In short, Trump made sure we all saw that he alone creates the chaos, and that he is not finished creating the chaos.

Wall Street Journal [3/23/2026 11:25 AM, David Oettinger, 646K] reports all kidding aside, what your editorial (“Put Chuck Schumer on TSA Duty,” March 16) discusses is no laughing matter. Sen. Schumer’s willingness to allow the Department of Homeland Security to shut down comes at a particularly dangerous moment, when Jewish institutions across the country face heightened and very real threats. One immediate consequence of a lapse in DHS funding is that Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program is left in limbo—delaying critical funding to synagogues and other at-risk institutions at a time of unprecedented antisemitic incidents nationwide. This program isn’t abstract policy; it is a frontline defense. It provides 501(c)(3) organizations with competitive grants—up to $200,000 per site—for essential security measures such as cameras, reinforced entryways, access control systems, trained personnel and emergency preparedness. These aren’t luxuries; they are necessities that protect lives. The recent attack on Temple Israel in Michigan underscores the stakes. When funding is delayed, security upgrades are postponed, vulnerabilities remain unaddressed and communities are left exposed. This isn’t a partisan issue. It is a matter of public safety. Policymakers on both sides of the aisle should recognize that political brinkmanship has real-world consequences—and ensure that vital security programs remain funded and uninterrupted.

The Hill [3/23/2026 10:10 AM, Alexander Bolton, 18170K] reports President Trump on Monday prominently rejected a core Democratic demand in the negotiations to reopen the Department of Homeland Security by declaring that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers should be allowed to wear masks to protect their identities during enforcement operations. Trump’s declaration on Truth Social that he is “a BIG proponent of ICE wearing masks as they search for, and are forced to deal with, hardened criminals” may derail any prospect of getting a deal with Democrats this week to reopen the Department of Homeland Security as Democrats have insisted that ICE officers be prohibited from wearing masks. Trump blamed President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden’s border czar, for letting more than 10 million migrants into the country during their four years in office. The president clarified, however, that he would not want ICE officers to wear masks if they are deployed to airports to help ease the massive congestion at security lines caused by high rates of absenteeism among TSA workers during the shutdown. “I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports, etc,” Trump posted. A ban on masks has been a core Democratic demand, along with the requirement that federal immigration officers obtain a judicial warrant before entering a private home, since Homeland Security funding lapsed on Feb. 14.

ABC News [3/23/2026 2:40 PM, Bill Hutchinson and Luke Barr, 34146K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began fanning out at more than a dozen airports across the nation on Monday to assume some of the duties of Transportation Security Administration officers affected by a federal government funding crisis. "What I see ICE agents doing is helping TSA plug the holes of security," White House Border Czar Tom Homan told ABC News on Monday. President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that the ICE agents assigned to airports will also continue to enforce immigration laws. "They really are a high-level group of people and they love it because they’re able to now arrest illegals as they come into the country. That’s very fertile territory," Trump said during a gaggle with reporters on the tarmac in Palm Beach, Florida. "But that’s not why they’re there. They’re really there to help." Trump went on to say, "If that’s not enough, I’ll bring in the National Guard." Homan said that if ICE agents see "illegal activity," they will take action because they are federal law enforcement officers. Asked whether the ICE agents will be carrying out immigration enforcement at airports, Homan said, "We’re not going to ignore illegal conduct in the airport whether it’s human trafficking, whether it’s alien smuggling with somebody that’s wanted, whether it’s... someone that they believe they have reasonable suspicion to talk to because they feel there’s a criminal activity in front of them."

CNN [3/23/2026 10:31 AM, Brian Stelter, 19874K] reports "Linda from Arizona," a caller on a conservative talk radio show, might deserve the credit or blame for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deploying to airports across the United States today. The caller said on "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," "I think I have a solution to the TSA problem." She said, "We need to bring in ICE agents." "It’s kind of a brilliant idea," co-host Clay Travis said. That exchange aired on the radio on Friday afternoon. President Trump announced his vision for ICE agents at airports on Saturday afternoon. What happened in between? Travis appeared on one of Trump’s favorite Fox News shows and personally pitched the idea. The White House hasn’t commented on whether Trump did, in fact, hear the TV segment and act accordingly. But Trump has a decade-long track record of watching Fox and posting his reactions on social media. During a Monday morning press gaggle, when asked whose idea it was to deploy ICE to airports, Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, "Mine. That was mine.” He then likened the idea to inventing the paperclip. "It was so simple, and everybody that looked at it thought, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’" he said. "ICE was my idea.” However, "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," which airs on local stations across the country, certainly believes their caller deserves credit for the idea.

Breitbart [3/23/2026 7:16 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2238K] reports over the past weekend, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrests of 15 more of the worst of the worst illegal alien criminals from across the nation, including rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and more. The Department of Homeland Security noted that nearly 70 percent of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S. "While Americans enjoyed their weekend, the brave men and women of ICE law enforcement were working hard to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities, including murderers, pedophiles, rapists, child abusers, gang members and other depraved criminals," said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. "Under President Trump, the safety of the American people comes FIRST. Nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens with charges or convictions in the U.S.”

Politico [3/23/2026 1:35 PM, Katie Bartlett and Daniel Han, 21784K] reports Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey on Friday announced a lawsuit seeking to block a major immigrant detention facility from opening in the state — the latest legal standoff between the new Democratic governor and the Trump administration. New Jersey filed the lawsuit along with the town of Roxbury, where the Trump administration is planning to open a facility that could hold 1,500 people. At a press conference announcing the litigation, Sherrill focused less on moral arguments over immigration policies coming from the president and more on practical issues like environmental risks and public safety. “It would divert emergency resources, it would displace potential housing and disrupt growth,” she said. “It’s the kind of poorly thought out, chaotic idea that all too often comes from the Trump administration.” The Trump administration in February purchased a warehouse in Roxbury, a small North Jersey community, for $129 million. The purchase is part of the administration’s broader efforts to convert warehouses into government-owned detention facilities, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement flush with cash after GOP leaders increased funding for the agency. Federal officials have said they want the deportation process to be “like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings” — comments that New Jersey’s lawsuit references. “The Roxbury Warehouse is a logistics center fit for Amazon Prime packages, not people — among other things, it currently has a total of four toilets, despite the planned influx of up to 1,500 detainees and hundreds more ICE employees,” the lawsuit said. ICE said the suit was not about the environment, and that it “carefully evaluated” facilities to minimize environmental impacts. “It’s about trying to stop President Trump from making America safe again. The left didn’t care about the mountains of litter that illegal aliens dropped on ranches and riverbeds during Biden’s border crisis. They’re feigning concern now because they want those same illegal aliens to stay forever and vote here.” It is unclear how changes at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, will impact the facility’s future. President Donald Trump’s new pick to be DHS secretary, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), told Congress this week that he would personally visit the Roxbury facility after facing questions from Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). “If I’m confirmed, I’ll make a trip out there and see it for myself, because it’s a big concern of yours, and we want to address those concerns,” Mullin said. In the lawsuit, officials allege that DHS violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires the federal government to alleviate any environmental harms in cooperation with state and local governments. The lawsuit states that the Trump administration never issued an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement on the project.

CBS Baltimore [3/23/2026 6:32 PM, J.T. Moodee Lockman and Dennis Valera, 51110K] reports that Maryland Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth made another visit to a Baltimore Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility Monday for a tour and discussion about the agency’s processes. The George H. Fallon Federal building contains five immigration holding rooms that have drawn concerns from other state lawmakers. Elfreth shared an update during a news conference after a guided tour and meeting with ICE officials. ICE has previously emphasized that the building is a processing facility, not a detention facility, and that migrants are "quickly processed and transferred" to permanent housing at detention facilities. The agency has denied any allegations of "inhumane conditions," saying they are "committed to enforcing immigration laws fairly, safely and humanely." WJZ has reached out to ICE for comment on this latest visit. During her visit Monday, Elfreth said she walked through the process of when someone is detained, asked ICE leaders about hygiene resources given to detainees and pushed for answers about access to attorneys. According to Elfreth, ICE officials said detainees are given a package with a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, wipes and menstrual products. Officials told the congresswoman that all detainees have access to attorneys and clergy, and their family and legal teams are alerted when they are transferred to another facility.

CBS Baltimore [3/23/2026 6:10 PM, Staff, 51110K] Video: HERE Gov. Wes Moore leads town hall on proposed Maryland ICE facility.

News 6 Orlando [3/23/2026 10:53 PM, Anthony Talcott] reports an Afghan man who was given asylum in the U.S. was again taken into custody this month after being convicted back in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In a release last week, federal officials announced that the man — identified as Basir Ahmad Safi, 44 — had been granted asylum in 2021 during Operation Allies Welcome, which aimed to help safely resettle vulnerable Afghans who worked alongside U.S. forces in the region. However, Safi was arrested in September 2023 by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on charges of lewd/lascivious exhibition, soliciting a child via computer, unlawful use of a two-way communications device, and child abuse. Court records also reveal that Safi pleaded guilty to child abuse in 2024 and was sentenced to 353 days in county jail, followed by a 19-month probation period. “This unvetted Afghan pedophile was let into our country by the Biden administration,” Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. “He should NEVER have been allowed into our country or given the opportunity to prey on innocent children.” According to the DHS, Safi was again arrested on March 11 as part of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations Jacksonville and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. At the time, his status had been revoked, meaning he was unlawfully living in the country, investigators noted. The DHS said that he will be held in ICE custody pending removal.

Chicago Tribune [3/23/2026 6:32 PM, Claire Murphy, 5209K] reports Patino was one of more than a dozen protesters who gathered on March 20 outside Sherman Plaza in Evanston to speak out against the real-estate investment firm, which owns a subsection of the Sherman Plaza building, according to Highlands REIT’s annual report. Protesters say the company plans to lease out a private Colorado prison to ICE to be converted into a future detention center. Highlands acknowledged a desire to lease the facility to the government in the annual report.

CBS News [3/23/2026 8:20 PM, Jack Fink, 51110K] Video: HERE reports President Trump said Monday he sent ICE officers to various airports across the country that have experienced very long lines, inconveniencing thousands of passengers. It comes as the partial government shutdown is impacting the Department of Homeland Security, making it the second-longest in history. But ICE is not sending its officers to Dallas Love Field and DFW International Airport for now because the lines at security checkpoints haven’t been anything like those at airports in Houston, Atlanta, and others. On Monday, ICE officers showed up at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport. For days now, travelers there have had to stand in lines for hours, just like at Atlanta’s airport. Some passengers have missed their flights even after showing up early. ICE wouldn’t comment on the role its officers are playing at airports, but in a video recorded by news photographers, ICE officers weren’t screening passengers. DHS says 400 TSA employees nationwide have quit since last month because they haven’t gotten paid. In a statement to CBS News Texas, DHS said, "While the Democrats continue to put the safety, dependability, and ease of our air travel at risk, President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, who are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted. This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions.” Democrats and Republicans in Congress are still blaming each other for the DHS shutdown and for placing ICE officers at the airports.

CNN [3/24/2026 5:01 AM, Claudia Boyd-Barrett, Renuka Rayasam, and Amanda Seitz, 19874K] reports Carlos arrived at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Mexico in December, believing he was one step closer to reuniting with his children. By that point, his 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter had been in a federal shelter in Texas for nearly a year after crossing the border to be with him. “I feel like I’m suffocating inside this shelter, trapped with no way out,” Carlos’ son said, according to one of the teens’ attorneys, when asked to describe how he felt after months at the Houston-area facility. “Every day, the same routine. Every day, feeling stuck. It makes me feel hopeless and terrified.” During daily video calls, Carlos, who had temporary protected status, urged the siblings to be patient, to trust the process. Federal officials had vetted Carlos before he could be granted custody and told him his case was complete. He believed he would soon be back with his children, who, like him, had sought refuge from political violence in Venezuela. An immigration officer called Carlos on a Friday and asked him to attend a meeting at an ICE office the following Monday to discuss reunification with his children. Once Carlos arrived, officers tried to force him to sign documents he said he didn’t understand. When he refused, they stripped off his clothes, seized his ID and belongings, and chained him by the neck, waist, and legs. “They tricked me,” Carlos said in a phone call from an immigration detention center in El Paso, Texas, where he was held for several months. “They used my children to grab me,” he said. In reporting on the family’s story, KFF Health News reviewed court documents, spoke with the family’s immigration attorneys, interviewed Carlos, and reviewed statements from his children, translated from Spanish. Carlos is a pseudonym, being used at the request of attorneys concerned that speaking out could jeopardize Carlos’ immigration case or further delay his reunion with his family.

Breitbart [3/23/2026 1:03 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2238K] reports YouTube and Netflix children’s content creator Ms. Rachel is temporarily moving on from supporting the cause of Hamas-led Palestine and is now taking aim at President Donald Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On one of her recent episodes, Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Anne Accurso, spoke over video chat with an immigrant child currently in the custody of federal officials at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas. Accurso found that the boy, 9-year-old Deiver Henao Jimenez, was sad because he was not going to be able to participate in his school spelling bee. "It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who’s in jail," Accurso, told NBC News. "It broke me, and it was something I never thought I’d encounter in life." "We’re trying to get a child out of a jail to do a spelling bee," she exclaimed. "I just never thought those words would go together.” The controversial entertainer has spoken to several others being held at the same location.

Breitbart [3/23/2026 5:21 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports an illegal alien is accused of choking a woman and then slitting her throat while he was high on meth in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jesus Alejandro Ramirez-Padilla, a 30-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, has been arrested and charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault, among other charges. According to police, Ramirez-Padilla was smoking meth with a woman when he began thinking about murdering someone. The illegal alien allegedly told police that he decided he would try to kill the woman. Police allege that Ramirez-Padilla choked the woman from behind until she fell on the ground. The illegal alien allegedly continued choking the woman before slashing her throat more than once. The woman, found by police in an alley, was rushed to a nearby hospital and is recovering from her injuries. This week, Border Hawk News exclusively confirmed with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials that Ramirez-Padilla is an illegal alien got-away who crossed the southern border at an unknown time and place. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged a detainer against Ramirez-Padilla, asking Salt Lake City officials to turn the illegal alien over to their custody if he is released from jail at any time.

Reuters [3/23/2026 3:33 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports that a federal judge on Monday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from enforcing a new ‌policy that would subject thousands of refugees to arrest and detention if after a year in the United States they had yet to obtain green cards. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston acted at the request of six refugees ​and two advocacy groups who argued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s policy was an unlawful ​departure from decades of practice. The plaintiffs alleged the policy exposed over 100,000 lawfully ⁠admitted refugees whose adjustments of immigration status applications are pending before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ​to potential detention. Steven Bressler, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the liberal legal group Democracy Forward, said ​in a statement the "ruling affirms that the government cannot manipulate the law to justify the mass arrest and detention of people." DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The policy was adopted as part ​of "Operation PARRIS," a program announced in January that DHS billed as "a sweeping initiative" to reexamine thousands of ​refugee cases. DHS at the time said the initial focus would be the roughly 5,600 refugees who had yet to be ‌given ⁠green cards in Minnesota, but the plaintiffs said the agency left open the potential for it to expand to refugees in other states. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of DHS, in memoranda issued in December and February reinterpreted immigration law to mandate the detention of any refugee who fails to obtain ​lawful permanent resident status, ​or green cards, after ⁠one year in the United States. The administration did so by reinterpreting a law that required lawfully admitted refugees to return to the "custody" of DHS for inspection ​and examination if they had yet to obtain green cards after a year. Six ​refugees, along ⁠with the Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts and the International Institute of New England, sued on February 27. They argued the policy was unlawful and a misinterpretation of the law. They noted that since the passage of ⁠the ​Refugee Act of 1980, the government had interpreted "custody" to mean ​only that refugees potentially report for an interview. Stearns, who was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, agreed, saying, "the term ‘custody’ has not historically ​been treated as synonymous with the term ‘detention.’"

USA Today [3/24/2026 3:01 AM, Maureen Groppe, 70643K] reports that, as the battle over immigration roils the country, the Supreme Court on March 24 will debate whether the federal government can send back asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. The practice often called ‘‘metering" – used by Democratic and Republican administrations alike to manage the number of people who can claim asylum each day – is not being used now. But the Trump administration wants to be able to use it, calling the policy a "critical tool for addressing border surges.” The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that the government is required to process a claim once someone reaches a port of entry. Immigrant rights organizations and asylum-seekers challenging the policy argue the government has used it to turn away people who are desperate, even when there’s sufficient staffing and other resources to deal with them. In a 2020 report, internal watchdogs at the Homeland Security Department said that, regardless of a port’s actual capacity and capability, border patrol agents at some crossings routinely told migrants they weren’t able to process them. "This case was never about capacity," said Nicole Elizabeth Ramos of Al Otro Lado, an immigrant rights group that helped bring the initial 2017 class action lawsuit. "It was about cutting off access to a group of people that the government – specifically the president and his administration – deem undesirable.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection has said it needs flexibility to manage its varied agenda, which includes stopping drug trafficking and facilitating lawful trade and travel. Can the U.S. legally turn back asylum-seekers? To be granted asylum – a process that can take years – an applicant must demonstrate they have faced persecution based on one of five protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. The 1986 Immigration and Nationality Act allows anyone "who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States" to apply for asylum. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the best way to interpret "arrives in" is that it doesn’t mean the same thing as "physically present," which would be redundant. Instead, the term "encompasses those who encounter officials at the border, whichever side of the border they are standing on," a divided panel of judges said. Otherwise, the court said, the law gives migrants an incentive to try to circumvent border crossings, something Congress likely did not intend. The Justice Department says that interpretation defies the plain text of the law. "The ordinary meaning of ‘arrives in’ refers to entering a specified place, not just coming close to it," the government said in its appeal.

CBS News [3/23/2026 9:21 PM, Lexi Salazar, 51110K] Video: HERE reports on a sunny day in early March, Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson spent an entire day with a CBS News Texas crew. He drove a producer and photojournalist from his home base in Alpine to Presidio, through the winding mountain roads of both Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park, and out to the wide and vast Black Gap Wildlife Management Area. He did it, he said, because he wanted to show them why he is among the voices that has spoken out against a planned border wall in the area. Since early February, residents of the Big Bend region have been outspoken about border wall plans — both on social media and through in-person events hosted in cities in Brewster and Presidio counties. A wall wouldn’t just be a scar on the landscape, they said. It would also be unnecessary in a region that typically sees far fewer border crossings due to the harsh terrain. Since news of a proposed border wall spread in February, plans have changed multiple times. The most recently plan, according to local officials, includes a physical barrier through land to the west of the state park, but not within either the state or national parks. Advocates and officials say that while they view this as progress, they will continue to fight against any physical wall in the region. Word that a physical border wall was being considered in the Big Bend region quickly spread via word of mouth last month. Landowners in Presidio County began receiving packets from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), letting them know their land might need to be accessed to build a wall. Others were approached by contractors looking to house construction workers for the project. The local paper, The Big Bend Sentinel reported in early February that construction was imminent. Eagle-eyed local residents noticed a map on CBP’s website showed a physical barrier planned for the border region, including through Big Bend Ranch and Big Bend National parks. Others observed a notice posted in the Federal Register, waiving 28 federal laws and regulations to allow for the construction of a physical barrier in the Big Bend Sector. Dodson said he initially got most of his information after he made a traffic stop on a trio of construction workers. "All of the men told us that they were down here surveying and getting rock samples and saying what they’re going to have to do to get the wall going," Dodson said. "It’s moving faster than we think it is."

Univision [3/23/2026 8:43 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports nearly a month after an immigrant was detained while trying to cross without documents into the United States, the CBP of the case. Border agents arrested a driver suspected of attempting to smuggle a hidden Mexican citizen into a makeshift compartment inside a vehicle’s gasoline tank at the San Ysidro port of entry. The incident occurred on February 27 around 19:30, when officers intercepted a 20-year-old man driving a 2005 GMC SUV. During an initial inspection, a canine team detected irregularities in the lower part of the vehicle, the agency said. Officers moved the unit to a secondary inspection zone, where they located a person hiding in a non-original compartment in the fuel tank area. The individual was rescued and transferred by emergency personnel to Scripps Mercy Chula Vista Hospital, where he received treatment for burns suffered during the smuggling attempt. “This case highlights the dangerous and inhumane tactics employed by smugglers who prioritize profits over human life,” said Mariza Marin, director of the San Ysidro port. He added that the rapid intervention of the agents allowed to rescue the victim from a potentially fatal situation. The driver was arrested and transferred to the San Diego Metropolitan Correctional Center. Authorities have not revealed his identity.

CBS News [3/23/2026 11:03 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports authorities in Puerto Rico on Monday seized cocaine worth an estimated $12 million off the island’s north coast. A police statement said officers intercepted a 26-foot-long boat without identification in waters off the town of Río Grande. Following a pursuit, three suspects were detained and more than 1,800 pounds of cocaine were found on board. Police said federal authorities are taking over the case. It is one of the biggest seizures in Puerto Rican waters in recent years. The U.S. territory has long served as a transit point for drugs being smuggled into the U.S. mainland and Europe. There have been several large drug seizures in Puerto Rico in the last few months alone. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, authorities seized roughly 214 pounds of cocaine hidden in a cargo ship that arrived in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, on Feb. 26. That haul was worth approximately $1.7 million, the agency said.

AP [3/23/2026 7:31 PM, Alba Alemán, 35287K] reports Mexican authorities found 229 migrants on Monday packed in the back of a truck traveling through the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, the first such encounter in months, marking a potential uptick in migration since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. José Manuel Pozos, the state’s deputy government secretary, said that they found migrants trapped in a truck reported stolen after they began to call for help from a police impound lot. Most of the migrants were from Central America, 17 were minors and a number were dehydrated, he said. Veracruz is one of a number of states that masses of migrants have historically crossed to reach the United States, and are preyed upon by cartels and other criminal groups. They are often packed into trucks in dangerous conditions to evade authorities while being smuggled north. But as migration north has plummeted since Trump took office, cases are few and far between. An employee at the Xalapa vehicle impound lot, where the truck was taken, told The Associated Press that the trailer had been stopped about 45 kilometers (28 miles) southeast of the city and that hours after arriving at the lot, workers began to hear shouting and banging coming from inside. When they realized people were locked inside, they called emergency services to open the vehicle, said the worker, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. In the afternoon, the migrants were removed from the impound lot in state police buses, but Veracruz police did not report where they were being taken. Generally, migrants without legal status are handed over to Mexico’s immigration agency.

The Hill [3/23/2026 12:44 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 18170K] reports M=more than 400 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers have quit their jobs since the partial government shutdown began on Feb. 14, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement that resignations and absences have skyrocketed since the department’s funding lapsed, as TSA officers report falling behind on bills as they continue to work without the promise of a paycheck anytime soon. “This pointless, reckless shutdown of our homeland security workforce has caused more than 400 TSA officers to quit and thousands to call out from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent,” Bis said in a statement to The Hill on Monday. The departures from the workforce have strained airports, many of which have had to close unmanned TSA checkpoints, creating longer lines as fewer officers take on a greater workload. The DHS shutdown began last month, after the deaths of two American citizens at the hands of immigration law enforcement compelled Democrats to refuse to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without first passing reforms. Republicans have pushed to fund the DHS in its entirety, rejecting Democratic efforts to separate out funding for ICE and CBP. “Because of the Democrat shutdown, President Trump is using every tool available to help American travelers who are facing hours long lines at airports across the country—especially during this spring break and holiday season that is very important for many American families,” Bis said in a statement. “While the Democrats continue to put the safety, dependability, and ease of our air travel at risk, President Trump is taking action to deploy hundreds of ICE officers, that are currently funded by Congress, to airports being adversely impacted. This will help bolster TSA efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions,” she added.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [3/23/2026 1:57 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K]
Washington Examiner [3/23/2026 3:39 PM, Rena Rowe, 1147K]

Breitbart [3/23/2026 1:16 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 2238K] reports roughly 3,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents did not show up for work on Saturday alone amid the partial government shutdown. The partial shutdown has reached day 38, and thousands of TSA agents have since called out — 3,000 alone on Saturday, according to reports. Sunday also had an excessive number of callouts: To help alleviate the staffing issues, the Trump administration has sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to several U.S. airports to assist with operations. Trump previewed the move over the weekend, and border czar Tom Homan confirmed the plan on Sunday. "I’m currently working on the plan now, execution. I’m working with the director of ICE and the administrator of TSA, the acting administrator. So we’ll put together a plan today and will execute tomorrow," Homan said during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union.

New York Post [3/23/2026 11:00 AM, Ryan King, 40934K] reports security lines at the world’s busiest airport stretched for five hours on Sunday as the TSA crisis escalated over the weekend. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that massive waits at airports across the country are about to "get much worse" due to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Lines stretched around the building at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Monday. And TSA agents told travelers that the wait for some areas at the airport — which handled 106 million travelers last year — was five hours, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Nearly 400 TSA workers have already quit already during the DHS shutdown, and Duffy warned that even more will walk off the job if they miss their second full paycheck on Friday. "I think you’re going to see more TSA agents as we come to Thursday, Friday, Saturday of next week, they’re going to quit, or they’re not going to show up," Duffy told ABC News’ "This Week" on Sunday. "I do think it’s going to get much worse, and as it gets worse, I think that puts pressure on the Congress to come to a resolution.” DHS has been in a partial shutdown since Feb. 14, with Democrats filibustering a funding measure in the Senate until they get their demands for sweeping reforms to ICE and other immigration enforcement reforms. Wait times at TSA security lines have exploded in the time since, with major travel hubs such as LaGuardia Airport and elsewhere blowing past three hours amid a shortage of workers. In addition to employees outright quitting, call-out rates have rocketed, jumping from an average of 2% before the partial shutdown to over 10%, according to acting Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl.

Daily Wire [3/23/2026 3:32 PM, Cameron Arcand, 2314K] reports some travelers spent as many as nine hours waiting in line at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Sunday, according to WSB-TV. On Monday, the report noted that wait times ranged from four hours down to less than an hour depending on the time of day, as Americans continue to grow frustrated with the high number of TSA callouts. Essential DHS workers, like TSA agents, are forced to work without a paycheck due to the Department of Homeland Security shutdown. "Due to TSA staffing constraints, ATL is continuing to see longer than normal wait times at security checkpoints," the airport posted to X on Monday morning. "Travelers are encouraged to arrive at least 4 hours early. We appreciate your patience and thank our federal and airport partners for their continued dedication," the post continued. According to Reuters, the Atlanta airport had a 41.5% callout rate for TSA agents, with other major airports having callout rates ranging from 20-40%. Hundreds of agents have quit their jobs entirely since the shutdown began in mid-February. "As the Democrats’ DHS shutdown continues, many TSA officers are facing extraordinary financial hardship—forcing them to call out of work and take on side jobs to support their families," the Department of Homeland Security posted to X on Monday regarding the callout numbers. "Democrats are hurting Americans—and they don’t care.”

Reuters [3/23/2026 4:42 PM, David ​Shepardson, 38315K] reports more than 100 airport leaders on ​Monday urged Congress ‌to end a funding standoff that has ​forced 50,000 Transportation ​Security Administration officers to ⁠go unpaid and ​has led to massive ​security lines. The CEOs of Airports Council International – North ​America and American ​Association of Airport Executives joined ‌by ⁠more than 100 airport leaders in a letter urged ​a end ​to ⁠the impasse, citing concerns "about the ​growing operational disruptions ​at ⁠airports... The impacts of the shutdown ⁠are ​significant, growing, ​and potentially long-lasting."

ABC News [3/23/2026 6:19 PM, Staff, 34146K] Video: HERE reports Everett Kelley, national president of TSA union AFGE, shares his thoughts on the Trump administration’s plan to use ICE agents at airports.

AP [3/23/2026 6:28 PM, Holly Ramer and Stephen Smith, 35287K] reports the list of reasons why air travel can be stressful has grown as long as the security lines at some U.S. airports. Back-to-back winter storms. The Iran war. Government shutdowns. A fatal runway collision between a jet and a fire truck. All have disrupted airline travel in recent months. Add in the usual hassles like seat selection and baggage fees, overbooked flights and takeoff delays, and even frequent flyers may be thinking twice about booking trips that require boarding a commercial airplane. Crowded airport checkpoints due to a funding standoff on Capitol Hill, and President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and agents to help with airport security, were top of mind for many passengers on Monday.

Newsweek [3/23/2026 12:41 PM, Steve Mollman, 52220K] reports President Donald Trump on Monday welcomed billionaire Elon Musk’s offer to personally cover the salaries of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers who have gone without pay during the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding lapse, calling the proposal a positive development as airport disruptions intensify nationwide. Asked by reporters about Musk’s suggestion, Trump responded simply: “Yeah, I’d love it. I think it’s great. Let him do that.” The exchange highlights the extraordinary political and operational strain created by the DHS shutdown, which has left thousands of TSA officers working without pay for weeks. As essential employees, TSA screeners have continued reporting to work despite missing paychecks, a situation that has triggered resignations, increased sick‑outs, and growing concerns about airport security and passenger safety. Musk’s offer—and Trump’s endorsement of it—underscores how unconventional solutions are now entering the debate as Congress remains deadlocked. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on X: “Hardworking TSA agents are sleeping in their CARS to save money on gas because Democrats won’t end the SCHUMER SHUTDOWN and fund DHS! What happened to the Democrats who claimed to be the party of the WORKING CLASS?! Stop the games. Fund @DHSGov. Pay these PATRIOTS.”

Axios [3/23/2026 3:44 PM, Kristal Dixon, 17364K] reports roughly 41% of TSA agents did not report to work at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security told Axios. Along with the hourslong security lines at airports across the country, skyrocketing prices, safety concerns, a partial government shutdown and a spike in oil prices are fueling a "spring of hell for air travelers," Axios’ Alex Fitzpatrick reports. DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Axios in a statement that more than 3,400 TSA officers called out of work Sunday. The world’s busiest airport urges passengers to arrive at least four hours before domestic and international flights, as TSA screening wait times show no signs of easing. President Trump over the weekend said ICE officers would be sent to airports around the country to help short-staffed TSA agents.

FOX News [3/23/2026 6:19 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Fox News correspondent Madison Scarpino interviews passengers waiting in long airport security lines amid the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security on ‘The Sunday Briefing.’

Axios [3/23/2026 4:55 PM, Carrie Shepherd, 17364K] reports travelers moving through O’Hare on Monday braced for long lines, travel headaches — and the added uncertainty of ICE officers stationed at airport security. TSA staffing shortages and flight disruptions elsewhere could ripple into Chicago. City officials expect more than 3.76 million travelers will pass through O’Hare during the peak period (March 19–30). The Trump administration deployed ICE officers to assist with airport security, including at O’Hare. The Department of Homeland Security declined to specify locations or staffing levels, citing "operational security." Mayor Brandon Johnson said roughly 75 ICE officers were expected at O’Hare; none were sent to Midway. ICE officers were also in New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Houston, according to airport officials in those cities. Nearly 3,500 TSA agents called out of work at airports across the country on Sunday as they braced for a second missed paycheck driven by the shutdown.

FOX News [3/23/2026 7:00 AM, Lindsay Kornick, 37576K] reports Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey claimed that President Donald Trump could hire more Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents rather than deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers despite an ongoing funding shutdown on Sunday. "When he says that he’s going to do security like no one has ever seen before, he doesn’t actually mean that he’s going to keep people secure," Frey said on MS NOW’S "The Weekend." "If the goal here was safety at airports, he could hire out more TSA agents that do an incredible job at keeping our airports safe," he continued. The Minneapolis mayor made the argument while criticizing Trump’s announcement that ICE agents would be deployed to airports throughout the country to help with long lines. "If the goal was keeping our streets safe and our cities [safe], he would work with cities around hiring additional police officers and creating the kind of safety infrastructure that we need to keep people safe. But of course, we all know that’s not the goal," Frey added. "The goal is to terrorize people. And for someone that states that they care so much about bringing the economy back — causing a ton of fear in airports, preventing the kind of safe air travel that we need for commerce, is not a good mechanism to do it." However, the president does not have the authority to hire more TSA agents without congressional approval and funding. Several agencies within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the TSA, are currently in an ongoing funding shutdown while congressional Democrats want to negotiate reforms to immigration enforcement.

CBS News [3/23/2026 6:23 PM, Nicole Sganga, 51110K] reports with nearly 40% of TSA employees at George Bush Intercontinental Airport calling out as the partial government shutdown drags into a sixth week, Houston has a problem. The security line in Terminal A on Monday turned into a three-floor nightmare stretching into the airport’s underground train system. The wait starts inside the terminal with a long slog in the subway corridor below, winding past baggage claim before climbing into ticketing — a slow-moving maze that travelers call confusing and inefficient. Out of the airport’s five terminals, only two had TSA staffing, and the wait times could exceed four hours, the airport told travelers. Some passengers in Terminal A told CBS News they’d been waiting longer — five or six hours. The traffic in Terminal E was moving somewhat faster on Monday, but passengers in both terminals with TSA officers told CBS News they had been waiting more than three hours. PreCheck and CLEAR lanes were both closed, pushing everyone into the same clogged lines. To help relieve the staffing shortage, the Trump administration sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to some of the airports that have been hit particularly hard. The Department of Homeland Security did not confirm where the agents were deployed due to "operational security reasons," but White House border czar Tom Homan said ICE agents are currently stationed in 14 U.S. airports. While ICE agents could be seen directing passengers and trying to keep lines moving at the worst choke points, TSA officers are still handling ID checks and running screening machines.

Breitbart [3/23/2026 5:58 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 2238K] reports Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wait time at one Houston airport terminal reached four hours on Monday as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrive to assist TSA workers amid the ongoing partial government shutdown. Amid the extended wait times, ICE agents are arriving at several U.S. airports to assist TSA with crowd control as well as ID checks. Over the weekend, thousands of TSA workers did not show up to work as the shutdown has now reached day 38. On Saturday alone, roughly 3,000 workers did not show up. On Sunday, call-outs topped 3,400. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were among the top in terms of high percentages of TSA worker call-outs. Trump border czar Tom Homan confirmed on Sunday that ICE agents would assist with the widespread travel nightmare in over a dozen airports nationwide. While critics have spoken against this plan, asserting that ICE agents are untrained and therefore an unsuitable match to help, Homan pointed out that ICE agents are already assigned at "many" airports across the country.

San Diego Union Tribune [3/23/2026 6:00 PM, Phillip Molnar and Rob Nikolewski, 1257K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been deployed to airports across the nation but, for now, there are none at San Diego’s airport. President Trump sent ICE agents on Monday to assist the Transportation Security Administration, which has been affected by a partial government shutdown. Agents were seen in Atlanta, New Orleans, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and others. Nicole Hall, spokesperson for the San Diego International Airport, said as of Monday morning, ICE agents had not been deployed here, and said the airport had no information about ICE. She noted the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and the TSA, is a federal agency that operates independently and may not inform the airport ahead of time if ICE officers are coming. “For operational security reasons, we are not going to confirm the locations of our officers,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis emailed in a statement. Even without ICE, San Diego fliers were dealing with a perfect storm of delay issues. Various weather events and major delays at New York’s LaGuardia Airport were rippling throughout the nation. Additionally, the airport said there was an increase in passenger traffic because of spring break. More than 90 flights had been delayed Monday morning, said Flight Aware, and eight flights had been canceled. Yet Hall said that was not any more than usual. Aaron Vazquez, a TSA lead transportation security officer at the San Diego airport and assistant airport steward for the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1260 in San Diego, told City News Service that about 70 to 80 officers per day are not going to work in San Diego, up from around 20 before the shutdown.

Breitbart [3/23/2026 4:14 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2238K] reports far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro is the subject of several ongoing probes by U.S. federal prosecutors over his alleged ties to drug traffickers, several outlets reported over the weekend. The left-wing New York Times, citing three unnamed sources, first reported on Friday that Petro was being investigated by U.S. attorney’s offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn to determine if Petro met with drug traffickers and if his presidential campaign solicited donations from them. The separate investigations, according to the Times, are in the early stages and have involved the participation of agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The outlet further stated that there “was nothing” in the investigations indicating that the White House had any role in initiating them.

Politico [3/23/2026 12:00 PM, Thomas Frank, 21784K] reports President Donald Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He approved just 23 percent of disaster funding requests from states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators since returning to office 14 months ago. For states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators, it’s the opposite — Trump has approved 89 percent of their requests. There has never been such a sharp partisan disparity in the approval of federal disaster funds since FEMA was created in 1979, according to a review of 2,500 natural disaster declarations by POLITICO’s E&E News. The denials have blocked Democratic-led states from getting a total of $250 million in disaster aid that would have been approved by every previous president including Trump in his first term, E&E News found. Trump rejected most of the requests even after FEMA had documented that the damage met its financial threshold to warrant receiving federal aid. “Never in my lifetime has a president treated disaster relief as a political cudgel,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said after seeing E&E News’ analysis. “What President Trump has done to politicize disaster relief and hold up support for Americans who need it — including my constituents in Washington state — is frankly unforgivable.” Trump’s recent disaster declarations contrast sharply with his first term, when he approved 93 percent of requests from Democratic-led states — compared to 89 percent from states controlled by Republicans. Political considerations had “zero” effect on disaster decisions in his first term, said Peter Gaynor, who ran the agency from 2019 to 2021.

AP [3/23/2026 6:18 PM, Audrey McAvoy and Gene Johnson, 35287K] reports the worst flooding to hit Hawaii in two decades swept homes off their foundations, floated cars out of driveways and left floors, walls and counters covered in thick, reddish volcanic mud. Crews continued to assess the destruction Monday, but authorities said hundreds of homes had been damaged, along with some schools and a hospital. No deaths have been reported, but more than 230 people had to be rescued. Gov. Josh Green said the cost of the storm could top $1 billion, including damage to airports, schools, roads, homes and a Maui hospital in Kula. He called it the state’s most serious since flooding since 2004, when floods in Manoa inundated homes and a University of Hawaii library. Officials blamed some of the devastation on the sheer amount of rain that fell in a short amount of time. Crews are still assessing the extent of the damage, but by Monday Oahu’s Department of Emergency Management had received more than 400 reports of damaged or destroyed homes, spokesperson Molly Pierce said. As the waters rose Friday, officials warned that the 120-year-old Wahiawa dam, north of Honolulu, was “at risk of imminent failure.” The dam has long been vulnerable, but worries eased as the water subsided.

CBS News [3/23/2026 9:04 PM, Matt Gutman, 51110K] reports O’ahu resident Melanie Lee saw what’s left of her house for the first time on Monday after the worst flooding Hawaii has seen in two decades turned parts of the islands’ emerald communities into mud. "We’ve been here almost 20 years. I lost ... We lost everything," Lee told CBS News. "My children’s pictures. Just real sentimental stuff. Now it’s like, now where we go from here?". Hawaii is just beginning the recovery from a pair of massive storms that unleashed up to 4 feet of rain in parts of O’ahu and Maui over the past week, Gov. Josh Green said. The latest storm prompted evacuation orders north of Honolulu, where officials said more than 200 people were rescued. In northern O’ahu, members of the National Guard trudged through waist-deep water to help stranded drivers and mudbound homeowners. More than 2,000 people were without power over the weekend. The island of Maui was also hit hard. The storm blasted down riverbeds, blew out bridges and roads and swallowed vehicles. Officials haven’t been able to assess the destruction fully but the cost of the storm could top $1 billion, including damage to airports, schools, roads, people’s homes and a Maui hospital in Kula, Green said. "This is going to have a very serious consequence for us as a state," the governor said during a news conference. He also said his chief of staff spoke to the White House and received assurances of federal support. Among those displaced is Honolulu-born actor Jason Momoa. In a video posted to Instagram, the "Aquaman" actor said he and his family left the North Shore and the power had gone out. "We’re safe now, but there’s a lot of people who weren’t, so sending all our love," Momoa said.

USA Today [3/23/2026 11:05 AM, Taylor Ardrey, 70643K] reports footage and photos capture the aftermath of catastrophic flooding in Hawaii, deemed the worst in two decades. It comes after severe rain and damaging winds that resulted in evacuation orders, more than 200 rescues, power outages and enough damage that could cost over $1 billion, officials said. Video shows a Coast Guard officer looking for signs of distress in the murky water in affected neighborhoods. According to HawaiiNewsNow, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi spoke on the widespread damage to residents’ homes. "Like everybody and anybody, I’m grateful that so far everybody’s alive, but I recognize the fact that a lot of homes have been destroyed," Blangiardi said, per the outlet. "A lot of people’s lives are going to be upended from the standpoint of the challenge of what they’re going to have to do going forward, and we’re just all going to have to dig in," he continued. A series of low-pressure systems has struck Hawaii in March. They’re a winter phenomenon, often called kona lows or kona storms, for the Hawaiian word "kona" for leeward. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [3/23/2026 3:13 PM, Elaine Mallon, 37576K] reports an Oregon man is back in police custody after threatening to "kill the president" in a slew of text messages to his probation officer. Diedrich Holgate, 47, was convicted and sentenced last July after making threats on social media and placing several direct calls to the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office, threatening to kill then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and then-President Joe Biden. In a June 2024 call to the Secret Service, Holgate said, "I have the right to kill the president." Two months later, Holgate called the field office again, threatening to "hang his a** for treason" and saying that no one was safe from him, including the First Lady and Supreme Court justices. Holgate was released from custody on January 21 and was ordered to live in a halfway house. Just weeks after being released from prison, Holgate’s probation officer filed a petition to revoke his probation for several violations, including continued death threats toward the president. A magistrate judge ruled in a preliminary hearing that there was probable cause to believe Holgate violated the conditions of his release. In addition to making threats, Holgate failed to report to a meeting with his probation officer and left the halfway house. He also violated house rules by smoking a vape. Holgate will remain in custody until his next hearing is scheduled on March 26. He was previously convicted in 2018 for sending threatening voicemails to two Texas judges in Travis County.

CyberScoop [3/23/2026 5:30 PM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports the Trump administration’s two-week old cyber strategy that aims to promote more proactive, offensive actions while bolstering federal networks and critical infrastructure, is a significant shift that’s already materializing in meaningful ways, a group of experts said Monday at the RSAC 2026 Conference. Despite the federal government’s absence from the industry’s largest annual gathering, and the long-anticipated document’s brevity, representatives from a major cybersecurity vendor, consulting, venture capital and law firm were quick to defend and evangelize the administration’s strategic actions in cyberspace. The freshly-released strategy puts the federal government on firm footing to move beyond deterrence and into action, said David Lashway, partner and global leader of cybersecurity and national security at Sidley Austin. “We are going to take offensive and defensive action with the most powerful cyber capability that the world’s ever seen, and hopefully will ever know,” he said. This doesn’t mean, as some industry observers have suggested, that the Trump administration is pushing private companies to hack back. The scale and whole of government response is the key difference between the latest federal cyber strategy and what administrations have called for over the past decade, Lashway said. Instead of relying on private lawyers to get a nationwide injunction and collaborate with dozens of governments for massive takedowns, or government agencies collaborating with private security companies on a limited basis, the strategy aims to mobilize “the massive infrastructure and capability of the United States in a more coordinated way,” he added.

CyberScoop [3/23/2026 1:25 PM, Derek B. Johnson, 122K] reports a phishing campaign tied to AI cloud-hosting service Railway has given hackers access to the Microsoft cloud accounts for hundreds of businesses, according to researchers at Huntress. Rich Mozeleski, product manager for Huntress’ identity team, told CyberScoop the campaign is currently tied to a smaller actor and approximately a dozen IP addresses, but has managed to compromise hundreds of targets in the past few weeks. In early March it was compromising a few dozen targets a day, but starting March 3, there was a “massive increase” in that tempo. Mozeleski said that in addition to being more sophisticated than usual, there were no identical emails or domains used, leading researchers to suspect that they may have been generated through artificial intelligence tools. The templates ranged from traditional email lures to QR codes and co-opted file-share sites. “Just the amount of it was like Pandora’s Box had opened, and the efficacy was just through the roof,” Mozeleski said.

CyberScoop [3/23/2026 11:25 AM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports voice-based phishing, a form of social engineering where attackers call employees or IT help desks under false pretenses in an attempt to gain access to victim networks, surged in 2025, Mandiant said Monday in its annual M-Trends report. These points of intrusion, which have been a hallmark of attacks attributed to members of the cybercrime collective The Com, including offshoots such as Scattered Spider, accounted for 11% of all incidents Mandiant investigated last year. Exploited vulnerabilities remained the top initial access vector for the sixth-consecutive year, giving attackers footholds in 32% of all incidents last year, the company said. Yet, the rise of voice phishing marks a concerning shift in tactics, especially in large-scale attacks with sweeping impacts. “This type of social engineering attack is extremely powerful. It is more time consuming, obviously it requires skills and impersonation skills that the threat actors need to have, especially when they contact their IT help desk,” Jurgen Kutscher, vice president at Mandiant, told CyberScoop. “We’ve clearly seen several threat actors being very specialized and very successful with this type of attack.”

San Francisco Chronicle [3/23/2026 10:53 PM, Alyce McFadden, 3833K] reports Foster City lawmakers approved a state of emergency Monday evening, five days after a ransomware attack briefly crippled the city’s police and emergency systems. Members of its city council voted 4-0 in favor of the emergency declaration, which will make the Peninsula city eligible for “governmental aid,” according to a memo from the city manager. One member of the council, Patrick Sullivan, was absent from the meeting. While emergency services and 911 lines are up and running, the rest of the city’s network remains offline as the investigation into the attack continues, officials said Monday. Municipal email and phone lines were “experiencing disruptions,” according to a statement posted to social media. City Hall was open to the public during normal operating hours, though officials cautioned that the services available there may be limited. Since the attack was identified Thursday, Foster City officials have been in communication with state and federal cybersecurity and law enforcement agencies, a spokesperson for the city said. The city is also working with “independent cybersecurity specialists” to address the consequences of the attack and investigate its source, according to a statement posted on social media Friday. Cyber attacks on cities have become commonplace in recent years because their systems house troves of personal information but often lack sophisticated cyber defense systems, according to experts. In 2023, an attack on Oakland made personal information for thousands of city workers, including Social Security numbers, home addresses and cell phone numbers, available on the dark web. It was unclear whether the Foster City security breach had exposed personal information. City officials encouraged residents who “have done business with the city” to change their passwords and take other precautions in a statement Thursday.

Bloomberg [3/23/2026 12:20 PM, Staff, 18082K] reports that Iran-linked cyber attacks disrupting operations at companies , including Stryker, are raising new concerns for US businesses and exposing gaps in AI security. Cyberwar doesn’t stop when the fighting does. In fact, it escalates. Nadav Zafrir, CEO of Check Point joined Bloomberg Interest to talk about how AI is fueling faster, more powerful cyberattacks, and why the world is more vulnerable than it realizes right now. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CyberScoop [3/23/2026 2:30 PM, Tim Starks, 122K] reports Iranian government-connected groups are deploying malware via the Telegram messaging app, taking aim at dissidents and other opponents of Tehran around the world, the FBI said in an alert Friday. The FBI said attackers linked to the Ministry of Intelligence and Security are behind the campaign, which stretches back to 2023. The bureau is escalating the alert now, though, because of the conflict between Iran and a U.S.-Israel alliance, it states. “The observed victim profile included Iranian dissidents, journalists opposed to Iran, members of organizations with beliefs counter to Government of Iran narratives, and other individuals Iran perceives as a threat to the Iranian government, However, the malware could be used to target any individual of interest to Iran.” the alert reads. “This malware resulted in intelligence collection, data leaks, and reputational harm against the targeted parties.” Handala — an Iranian pro-Palestinian group that claimed credit for the hack on medical device maker Stryker this month — used information it gathered from hacking dissidents to carry out a hack-and-leak campaign in 2025, the FBI assesses. (Stryker sent a notice to the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday that provides an update on the incident.) While U.S. officials say they haven’t seen any major increase in cyberattacks out of Iran since the conflict began, experts have noted it could be weeks before patterns emerge.

Breitbart [3/23/2026 9:29 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports lawyers for the ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro are expected to push for the dismissal of his drug trafficking charges when he appears in a New York court Thursday. The Manhattan hearing comes as Washington cautiously warms ties with Caracas, with the question of who will pay the legal fees of the former autocrat and his wife expected to take center stage. Venezuela’s government is seeking to pay Maduro’s legal fees but because of Washington’s sanctions on the oil-rich south American nation, Maduro’s lawyer Barry Pollack must obtain a US government license that has not been issued. Pollack argued in a court submission that the license requirement violated Maduro’s constitutional right to legal representation, and demanded the case be thrown out on procedural grounds. Maduro, who autocratically ruled Venezuela since March 2013, was ousted as president in a January 3 raid by the United States. Detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison known for unsanitary conditions, Maduro is alone in a cell, with no access to the internet or newspapers. The man some of his fellow detainees call "president" in the hallways reads the Bible, according to a source close to the Venezuelan government. He is only allowed to communicate by phone with his family and lawyers, for a maximum of 15 minutes per call, the source added.

AP [3/23/2026 6:56 PM, Jennifer McDermott and Matthew Daly, 34146K] reports that the Trump administration will pay $1 billion to a French company to walk away from two U.S. offshore wind leases as the administration ramps up its campaign against offshore wind and other renewable energy. TotalEnergies has agreed to what’s essentially a refund of its leases for projects off the coasts of North Carolina and New York, and will invest the money in fossil fuel projects instead, the Department of Interior announced Monday. The Trump administration has tried to halt offshore wind construction, but federal judges overturned those orders. Environmental groups denounced the TotalEnergies deal as an alternate way to block wind projects. President Donald Trump has gone all in on fossil fuels, which he says is the way to lower costs for families, increase reliability and help the U.S. maintain global leadership in artificial intelligence. TotalEnergies had already paused its two projects after Trump was elected. TotalEnergies pledged to not develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States. TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said in a statement that the company renounced offshore wind development in the United States in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees, "considering that the development of offshore wind projects is not in the country’s interest." Pouyanné said the refunded lease fees will finance the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant in Texas and the development of its oil and gas activities, calling it a "more efficient use of capital" in the U.S.

Los Angeles Times [3/23/2026 12:52 PM, Monika Pronczuk, 12718K] reports that the United States deployed drones to Nigeria to provide training and intelligence, a U.S. defense official said Monday, as the West African country’s military fights a multifaceted security crisis. The MQ-9 drones, also known as Reapers, were deployed alongside 200 U.S. troops who arrived in Nigeria last month. The drones, which can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet and can loiter for more than 30 hours, have been flown by both the U.S. military and the CIA over the Middle East for years, in Afghanistan, Iraq and now over Yemen during the American bombing campaign there. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is battling a complex security crisis, especially in the north of the country. Among the most prominent Islamic militant groups active in Nigeria are Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, which is affiliated with the Islamic State group and is known as Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP. There is also the IS-linked Lakurawa, as well as other "bandit" groups that specialize in kidnapping for ransom and illegal mining. A spokesperson for AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command, told AP the U.S. troops "are working alongside their Nigerian counterparts to provide intelligence support, advisory assistance, and targeted training in support of the Nigerian Armed Forces." The troops and the MQ-9 drones are based at Bauchi Airfield, a newly built airport in the northeast of the country, the spokesperson said. The number of drones deployed remains unclear.

Daily Caller [3/23/2026 1:47 PM, Harold Hutchison, 803K] reports that President Donald Trump on Monday outlined the conditions Iran would have to meet for Operation Epic Fury to end. Trump announced Monday morning that talks had started between the United States and Iran, pausing a planned strike on Iranian power plants for five days. Trump spoke to reporters before boarding Air Force One en route to an event in Memphis. "We’re looking for all of the things that we’ve been talking about," Trump told reporters. "We want to see no nuclear bomb, no nuclear weapon, not even close to it, low-key on the missiles. We want to see peace in the Middle East. We want the nuclear dust, we’re going to want that, and I think we’re going to get that." "We’ve agreed to that, yes, we’ve agreed to that uranium … we want no enrichment, but we also want the enriched uranium," Trump continued. "If this happens, it’s a great start for Iran to build itself back, and it’s everything that we want, and it’s also great for Israel and it’s great for the other Middle Eastern countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, all of them, Kuwait and Bahrain in particular, so it’s great for all of them." Trump announced the start of Operation Epic Fury in a Feb. 28 post on Truth Social after negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program collapsed. Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, said in a March 2 interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that Iranian diplomats declared the regime would keep enriching uranium and claimed to already possess enough material for nearly a dozen "dirty" weapons. Trump later told reporters during the gaggle that the United States would take custody of the materials in question. "It’s very easy," he told reporters. "If we have a deal with them, we’re going down and we’ll take it ourselves." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC News [3/23/2026 1:38 PM, Michelle Stoddart and Alexandra Hutzler, 34146K] reports that President Donald Trump, after postponing U.S. strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure citing new negotiations with Tehran, said on Monday that talks will continue and that there are "major points of agreement." "They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, that’s number one," Trump told reporters in Florida. "That’s number one, two and three. They will never have a nuclear weapon," the president said. "They’ve agreed to that," he added. According to Iranian state media, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Qalibaf said "no talks with the U.S. have taken place; reports claiming otherwise are fake news aimed at influencing financial and oil markets and distracting from the challenges facing the U.S. and Israel." Iran has previously committed not to build a nuclear weapon as part of negotiations with the West, yet continued to enrich nuclear material to levels nearing weapons grade. Iran’s intent to build a nuclear weapon, according to Trump, was a central justification for the war. This was despite the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon in the wake of last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer, which Trump said "obliterated" the country’s nuclear weapons program.

Breitbart [3/23/2026 10:55 AM, Frances Martel, 2238K] reports that President Trump announced a military engagement to neutralize Iran’s ability to engage in terrorist activity around the world on February 28. Dubbed "Operation Epic Fury," the Pentagon has continued an airstrike campaign within Iran for the past month targeting Iran’s most powerful leaders alongside operations against the regime by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Operation Epic Fury has resulted in the elimination of dozens of high-ranking senior Iranian regime officials, including longtime "supreme leader" Ali Khamenei. Iranian leaders announced in early March that Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, who had never before held public office, was chosen as the next "supreme leader," but the younger Khamenei has made only two written statements since and has not been seen in public. Initially, reports suggested that the true leader wielding power in the country was top security official Ali Larijani, but Iranian officials confirmed last week that Larijani himself also died in an airstrike. This week, anonymous reports in American mainstream news outlets, citing alleged intelligence officials, claimed that, to the best of the American government’s knowledge, Mojtaba Khamenei is alive, but "wounded, isolated, and not responding to messages being relayed to him." Some reports have speculated that he was injured in the airstrike that killed his father.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [3/23/2026 6:54 PM, Staff, 34146K] Video: HERE

FOX News [3/23/2026 12:35 PM, Morgan Phillips, 37576K] reports that President Donald Trump’s decision to delay a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the U.S.’ conflict with Iran unfolds is raising a new question in Washington: whether pressure on global oil flows is factoring into U.S. leverage with Beijing. The summit originally had been planned for March 31 to April 2, but Trump said on March 16 that he had asked China to delay it by "a month or so," explaining, "We got a war going on. I think it’s important that I be here." The following day, Trump said the meeting would instead take place in "about five or six weeks," adding, "We’re working with China — they were fine with it." "The president has some things here at home in May that he has to attend to," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters March 16, adding that the two sides would set a date "as soon as we can." At the same time, U.S. strikes on Iran — and earlier pressure on Venezuela — have been affecting countries central to China’s energy supply, disrupting shipping and raising costs without fully cutting off flows. China remains the largest buyer of Iranian oil, and shipments are still moving despite the conflict. But increased risk, higher prices and logistical disruptions are squeezing one of Beijing’s most important energy lifelines — raising the prospect of Washington gaining leverage by driving up the cost and risk of the oil China depends on. In recent months, U.S. actions have hit two countries where China has built deep economic ties — Venezuela and Iran, both tied to Beijing through oil and investment. The Chinese embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.

AP [3/23/2026 9:17 PM, Kim Tong-Hyung, 35287K] reports North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to irreversibly cement his country’s status as a nuclear power while maintaining a hard-line stance toward South Korea, which he called the "most hostile" state, state media said Tuesday. In a speech Monday to Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament, Kim accused the United States of global "state terrorism and aggression," in an apparent reference to the war in the Middle East, and said the North will play a more forceful role in a united front against Washington amid rising anti-American sentiment. But Kim didn’t call out U.S. President Donald Trump by name and said whether his adversaries "choose confrontation or peaceful coexistence is up to them, and we are prepared to respond to any choice.” His comments largely aligned with his statements at last month’s ruling Workers’ Party Congress, where he vilified Seoul but left open the door for dialogue with the Trump administration, urging Washington to drop its demands for the North’s nuclear disarmament as a precondition for talks. State media said the Supreme People’s Assembly, which concluded its two-day session Monday, passed a revised constitution but did not specify the changes. There had been expectations the revisions would codify South Korea as a permanent enemy and remove references to shared nationhood. That’s in line with Kim’s hard-line stance after he declared in 2024 that the North would abandon its long-term goal of a peaceful unification with the South. Analysts say Kim’s vilification of South Korea reflects his view that Seoul, which helped arrange his first meetings with Trump in 2018 and 2019, is no longer a useful intermediary with Washington but an obstacle to his push for a more assertive regional role. He has also shown sensitivity to South Korean soft power, driving aggressive campaigns to block the influence of its culture and language among North Koreans as he seeks to tighten his family’s authoritarian grip. In his speech, Kim expressed pride in the country’s rapid expansion of nuclear weapons and missiles in recent years, calling it the "right" choice to counter future threats and "hegemonic pursuits" by "gangsterlike" imperialists, a term the North often uses for the United States and its allies. "The dignity of the nation, its national interest and its ultimate victory can only be guaranteed by the strongest of power," Kim said. "The government of our republic will continue to consolidate our absolutely irreversible status as a nuclear power and will aggressively wage a struggle against hostile forces to crush their (anti-North Korean) provocations and schemes.”

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