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.

ABC News [3/30/2026 5:11 PM, Michelle Stoddart and Alexandra Hutzler, 34146K] reports President Donald Trump is encouraging Congress to cut short its two-week recess and return to Washington to fund the Department of Homeland Security amid its ongoing partial shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday. Lawmakers left the Capitol last week with no deal to fund the department, extending what is already the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. Although Trump last week publicly called for Congress to cancel recess, he has not publicly called for lawmakers to return to Washington since they left town Friday. The House and Senate ultimately left town with no compromise, and are currently scheduled to be out for recess until mid-April. Amid the gridlock on Capitol Hill, and as lines and turmoil grew at some of the nation’s busiest airports, Trump on Friday signed a memorandum directing DHS to work with the White House budget office to pay employees at the Transportation Security Administration. Some TSA officers received their first paychecks in more than a month on Monday, workers told ABC News. Leavitt made clear that the executive action from Trump is a short-term Band-Aid and said that Congress still needs to act to fund these agencies. Several other DHS agencies remain without funding, with employees not getting paid at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and civilian employees in the Coast Guard. Breitbart [3/30/2026 9:06 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 2238K] reports that the call comes days after the president signed a memorandum directing DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to work with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents. "The president has stepped in to do the right thing at this moment in time, but the president is also encouraging Congress to come back to Washington to permanently fix this problem and to fund and reopen the Department of Homeland Security entirely," Leavitt said in response to a question from Politico. Wait times at airport TSA checkpoints have skyrocketed due to the shutdown. Leavitt said that Trump cannot just continue to sign memoranda and blasted Democrats for "holding our entire country hostage" with their demands for restrictions on funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "The president just can’t keep signing presidential memorandums and proclamations every time Congress fails to do its job, and every time Democrats are holding our entire country hostage, picking and choosing which programs and agencies they want to fund just because they don’t like this administration’s policies," she said. By subscribing, you agree to our terms of use & privacy policy. You will receive email marketing messages from Breitbart News Network to the email you provide. You may unsubscribe at any time. Earlier in her remarks, Leavitt said that "Democrats in Congress have pushed our air travel system to its breaking point and inflicted massive pain on Americans with their reckless political games" over the course of the six-week DHS shutdown. She also noted, "nothing will be truly normal again until Democrats do the right thing to fund this agency fully.".

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [3/30/2026 5:33 PM, Sam Barron, 3760K]

CBS News [3/30/2026 7:44 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 51110K] reports that the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, now the longest in history at 45 days, is set to stretch on after House Republicans rejected a Senate-passed solution to the standoff late last week. TSA employees began receiving partial back pay as the standstill in Washington showed no signs of ending. President Trump directed the TSA workers to be paid late last week, and DHS officials said the deposits began hitting accounts Monday and are expected into the coming days. The situation at airports became dire in recent weeks, with more than 500 TSA agents quitting their jobs as the shutdown wore on. Unlike the last funding lapse, Congress was able to fund the bulk of the government in recent months. But DHS has been the exception, with Democrats demanding reforms to immigration agencies since two deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis. After the Senate reached a bipartisan solution to fund the bulk of the department late last week, it was GOP infighting that dashed the path forward. Senate Democrats and the White House had been negotiating reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent weeks. But as a breakthrough remained out of reach, the Senate changed course and began pursuing a plan that left out funding for ICE, a reflection of the intense strain of the shutdown on other DHS agencies, like the TSA. After Mr. Trump announced he would sign the order to pay TSA officers, the Senate unanimously approved funding for DHS early Friday morning. The measure left out funds for ICE and some of Customs and Border Protection. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Republicans that he’s working with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to determine if there’s room for agreement on DHS funding. But a spokesperson for Schumer said the New York Democrat "made clear that Democrats would not accept anything less than what was passed unanimously by the Senate." With 53 Republicans in the Senate, support from Democrats is necessary to reach a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation. Calls for lawmakers to cut their recess short could grow in the coming days. GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah urged Senate leaders to bring Congress back into session on Sunday, writing on X that "Waiting for a deal to materialize with Chuck Schumer applies no pressure on Senate Democrats to fund DHS." "Interrupting their recess and forcing them to debate DHS funding on the Senate floor *would* apply pressure," Lee added. "We can’t reward unprecedented obstruction with two-week recesses." Lee also pointed to the president’s ability to convene one or both houses of Congress "on extraordinary Occasions." Whether the president would take action to prompt Congress’ early return remains to be seen. White House border czar Tom Homan said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday that he hopes the president will compel lawmakers to return. "They’re on vacation right now while tens of thousands of DHS employees aren’t being paid," he said. "The president found a way to pay TSA workers so we can get the American public through those lines," Homan added. "So we just need to get the department funded." Homan said ICE agents, who have been assisting TSA agents at airports, will remain in place until they return to regular operations.

Washington Times [3/30/2026 4:14 PM, Lindsey McPherson, 1323K] reports Congress is under pressure to cut its two-week recess short, return to Washington and reopen the Department of Homeland Security. On Monday, the DHS shutdown entered its 44th day, surpassing the record set during last fall’s 43-day, government-wide shutdown. President Trump has said he would host an Easter dinner for lawmakers at the White House if Republicans come back to fight Democrats on the issue, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. The union that represents Transportation Security Administration workers is also demanding Congress return, even as some of its members started receiving back pay on Monday following Mr. Trump’s executive order calling for DHS to find funding to pay TSA agents. Union leaders are concerned with the updated furlough guidance TSA issued Sunday removing agents’ ability to request to be placed into furlough status when unable to make it to work. Lawmakers are also facing internal pressure to come back into session after they failed to end the shutdown before the recess. The Senate passed a partial DHS funding bill that provided money for most agencies, except for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and much of Customs and Border Patrol. The House objected to excluding those immigration enforcement functions and passed an eight-week stopgap late Friday to fund all of DHS. House Speaker Mike Johnson said his Republican colleagues in the Senate would try to pass the stopgap measure by unanimous consent during a pro forma session on Monday. That did not happen.

New York Times [3/31/2026 3:35 AM, Carl Hulse, 330K] reports Senate Republicans bypassed an opportunity on Monday to try to force a quick end to the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security, leaving the closure in place while lawmakers remained on a two-week recess with no resolution in sight. Despite urging from House G.O.P. leaders, Senate Republicans did not try to use a brief ceremonial session on Monday morning to push through an eight-week extension of funding for the agency, which Democrats had said they would object to. Instead, Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota, who presided over the roughly 30-second session, said lawmakers were continuing to discuss how to proceed. “If we had something good to go today, we could have done it today, but we weren’t quite ready,” Mr. Hoeven told reporters at the Capitol afterward. “We continue to negotiate.” Even if Republicans had attempted to plunge ahead, Democrats would have been able to block the effort with a single objection. They have said that a funding measure approved by the Senate early Friday — which would not fund immigration enforcement — was the surest way out of the impasse, because it represented a bipartisan agreement to end the shutdown. “I’m here to object to any effort to undo that,” said Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, who ultimately did not have to speak since Republicans made no move to push ahead with the House measure. “We followed the process, followed the rules and funded the government.” The stalemate, now in its seventh week, has snarled airport security lines and caused other disruptions in government services, though Transportation Security Administration workers were to begin getting overdue paychecks this week under an order signed by President Trump last week. A potential end had appeared possible on Friday when senators passed and sent to the House legislation to fund most of the agency except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, which have been operating under a separate pot of money pushed through Congress last year by Republicans. Democrats have insisted they would not approve any money for immigration officers without new restrictions on their conduct, but they have been unable to reach a deal with the administration after weeks of talks. House Republicans erupted in anger at the Senate’s bill as well as its leadership and refused to put the legislation on the floor. Instead, the House approved a two-month extension of funding on a nearly party-line vote, even though it had no chance of passage in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes including several Democrats, who are opposed. Still, Speaker Mike Johnson encouraged Senate Republicans to push it through as soon as they could. Mr. Hoeven said that talks were underway to try to find some alternative that could advance, even as he acknowledged that the Senate legislation could likely pass the House through a combination of Republican and Democratic votes if Mr. Johnson were willing to put it on the floor. “It was set up so that if some Republicans wanted to vote no, they could have voted no, but ultimately we think it would have passed,” Mr. Hoeven said.

CNN [3/30/2026 5:50 PM, Annie Grayer, Morgan Rimmer, 19874K] reports lawmakers have departed Washington for spring recess locked in a stalemate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. But even as their movements outside the halls of Congress face increased public scrutiny, Republican leaders are showing no signs they’ll force their members to come back early to hash out a deal. Photos of South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham dining in Florida at Disney World over the weekend surfaced in tabloid TMZ, while Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia was spotted at a casino in Las Vegas. The images drew swift backlash as they rapidly spread across social media Monday. But the optics of the lawmakers traveling as the DHS remains shut down is ratcheting up pressure on the Republican-led Congress to shorten their previously scheduled Easter and Passover break. And it is exposing how GOP leadership is at odds about the best path forward to fund the key agency and end a shutdown that shows no signs of abating. Van Drew joins a growing chorus of Republicans, under political pressure, who are arguing that their GOP leaders should cancel recess and bring lawmakers back to Washington, DC, until a deal is done. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that President Donald Trump is "encouraging" Congress to return to find a solution, arguing the president — who has ordered DHS to unilaterally pay Transportation Security Administration employees to alleviate recent travel chaos — cannot continually step in when Congress fails to do its job. Part of the problem is the House and Senate are not on the same page about the path forward. The two Republican-led chambers passed competing proposals for how to fund DHS and left town without a plan to rectify their differences and end the shutdown. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune believe the ball is in the other’s court to call their members back to session after each passed a plan at odds with the other. Neither leader appears willing to blink even though Republicans have publicly placed the blame solely on Democrats. And Democrats continually point to the fact that they do not control either chamber.

The Hill [3/30/2026 12:27 PM, Alexander Bolton, 18170K] reports Senate Republicans are working on a budget reconciliation package that could pass without any Democratic support and would fund the Department of Homeland Security for the next three years. GOP senators want to make sure that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as well as other critical agencies, such as the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard, are taken care of for the remainder of President Trump’s time in office. They’re worried that Democrats will try to use Homeland Security funding as leverage again to extract concessions from the Trump administration and that another funding showdown is likely if Democrats capture the House in the 2026 midterm elections. “We are working on reconciliation,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters Monday. “We’re coming back with reconciliation. We’re going to send [the House] that actually funds DHS for the next three years. We’re not going through this again with the Dems, OK? “We’re taking this off the table. That’s enough of this with the Democrats. We’re going to fund DHS for the next three years,” he added.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [3/30/2026 12:23 PM, Lillianna Byington, 18082K]

FOX News [3/30/2026 2:47 PM, Eric Mack, 37576K] Video: HERE reports the White House is calling on Congress to return from Easter recess to pass funding to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, arguing the standoff has disrupted TSA operations and airport travel nationwide. "Nothing will be truly normal again until Democrats do the right thing to fund this agency fully again," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at Monday’s daily press briefing. "The president has stepped in – in the meantime to do what’s right to end this crisis that we’ve had at air travel, at airports across the country in the meantime. "But again, Congress needs to come back. Democrats need to fund the Department of Homeland Security so we can formally and fully get these great employees paid long into the future.". The funding impasse has stretched beyond six weeks, with reports of major TSA staffing shortages, long security lines, and the deployment of ICE personnel to assist at some airports. Congress left Washington without a final deal after negotiations over DHS funding and immigration provisions stalled. Both parties have traded blame as travel disruptions and pressure from unions and aviation officials continue to grow. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [3/30/2026 2:41 PM, Nicole Silverio, 803K]

The Hill [3/30/2026 3:31 PM, Mallory Wilson, 18170K] reports White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday blamed Democrats for long Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lines at airports, saying their party is at fault for not coming to an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Leavitt told reporters at a press briefing that Democrats “have failed” to protect U.S. citizens “by keeping the Department of Homeland Security unfunded over the past six weeks.” President Trump last week signed a memorandum instructing DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “immediately” pay TSA workers who have gone without pay since funding for the department lapsed last month. Leavitt side-stepped questions about how long TSA workers could be paid without Congress funding the agency. The Office of Management and Budget told The Hill that money for TSA agents is coming from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. When asked why the president didn’t sign a memorandum sooner to pay the airport agents, Leavitt said it was the Democrats’ repeated failure to fund the DHS that led “to a place of an existential crisis.” TSA agents started to receive paychecks Monday for back pay they missed during the shutdown.

Daily Caller [3/30/2026 1:15 PM, Ashley Brasfield, 803K] reports GOP lawmakers have left America’s capital amid a heated struggle with Democrats over the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Senate Majority Leader John Thune led the pack of Republican senators leaving Washington, DC, amid the DHS appropriations bill fight and the battle over election integrity legislation. The Senate passed a funding deal excluding money for ICE and Border Patrol using unanimous consent Friday, while the House later narrowly passed a stopgap funding all of DHS, including immigration enforcement, through late May. The Senate also failed to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, add voter ID requirements and remove non-citizens from voter rolls. Thune was seen leaving D.C. on Friday, where he was asked by a Fox News reporter if he believes everything is "resolved" and "working out well" and if the House will "do their job.". Thune responded to the reporter, "We made some temporary headway, but we got a lot of work to do still.". Republican Florida Rep. Randy Fine called Thune out individually in a post on X Friday. "Looks like Leader John Thune is on his way out of town with his private escort, as the SAVE America Act gets left behind. This is very disappointing. I am willing to stay in Washington as long as it takes to get the job done," he wrote.

Washington Examiner [3/30/2026 5:55 PM, Hailey Bullis, Lauren Green, 1147K] reports lawmakers have left Washington during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, leaving the Department of Homeland Security unfunded as pressure mounts on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to bring senators back. With both the Senate and the House on a two-week recess to observe Passover and Easter, the partial government shutdown has become the longest in history, dragging on for more than 40 days. The impasse stems from a split between the House and Senate over how to fund the DHS, with Senate leaders backing a narrower deal and House Republicans demanding full funding. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that President Donald Trump is "encouraging" lawmakers to "come back to Washington to permanently fix this problem and to fund and reopen the Department of Homeland Security entirely." The House punted a two-month continuing resolution back to the Senate late Friday after rejecting the bipartisan deal Thune struck with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to fund everything at the DHS except ICE and Border Patrol. The deal passed at 2:30 a.m. Friday, just before senators left town for their break. The late-night maneuver was meant to force the House to accept the deal. Instead, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) rallied Republicans in opposition. The House rejected the deal and opted to pass legislation funding the entirety of the DHS for 60 days. In a blow to Thune, Trump lined up behind Johnson. A Senate GOP aide told the Washington Examiner that Thune had informed the Senate Republican conference in a note over the weekend that he will not bring them back to Washington for a "show vote." Thune will only call senators back if there is a deal that can get sufficient support among both Republicans and Democrats to overcome the chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.

FOX News [3/30/2026 1:38 PM, Adam Pack, 37576K] reports while thousands of Department of Homeland Security employees have gone seven weeks without a paycheck, some lawmakers are defending a planned recess as the funding stalemate drags on. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., objected Monday to the idea that senators should have stayed in session until lawmakers come to an agreement to fund DHS. The Democratic lawmaker traveled to the U.S. Capitol to block potential floor action related to ending the partial government shutdown from Republicans during a planned "pro forma" session. "How do you justify being off for the next two weeks?" CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion asked Coons. "We’re 45 days in. Can Democrats and Republicans keep affording to play this blame game?" "You know very well that we’re not off," Coons responded. "We’re working every day in our home states. For most of us, this is when we have time to go up and down our state and to meet with our constituents and listen to their concerns.". The fiery exchange comes as tens of thousands of DHS employees have been furloughed or are reporting to work without pay during the record-breaking funding lapse. Though President Donald Trump has taken executive action to pay the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workforce with existing funds, many other DHS employees have not received a full paycheck in over seven weeks.

Newsweek [3/30/2026 2:23 PM, Jesus Mesa, 56420K] reports Senate Majority Leader John Thune negotiated for weeks with Democratic senators. In the predawn hours of Friday, after trading offers several times, Thune and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer settled on a deal to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security through September 30. The package would not include funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. It would have reopened airports, paid 50,000 unpaid federal workers and ended a lengthy government shutdown. By noon, it collapsed. House Speaker Mike Johnson marched out of his office and called the measure "a joke." "I have to protect the House, and I have to protect the American people," Johnson told reporters. More than 480 TSA officers had quit since February. At some airports, 40 to 50 percent of the workforce called out on certain days. Yet Johnson walked away. The rejection exposed a rupture between the two Republican leaders in Congress. On a GOP conference call that morning, several dozen members ranging from moderates to hard-line conservatives spoke against the Senate deal. Representative Nick LaLota of New York said the Senate had "chickened out.".

FOX News [3/30/2026 1:03 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., explained to Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram why Republicans did not try to pass the House spending bill by unanimous consent to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown on Monday morning. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., explained to Fox News’ chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram why Republicans did not try to pass the House spending bill by unanimous consent to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown on Monday morning.

Daily Caller [3/30/2026 12:54 PM, Nicole Silverio, 803K] reports Conservative radio host Glenn Beck called on President Donald Trump Monday to force Senate Majority Leader John Thune to return from vacation and address the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Senate unanimously approved funding for DHS on Friday without including funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and some of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Beck argued on "The Glenn Beck Program" that Trump should exert his executive authority and force Congress to reconvene during "extraordinary occasions.". "Get [Thune’s] ass back to Washington. Get every single one of those senators back to Washington. I am so sick and tired. He left in the middle of the night. They knew it would not pass in the House. They knew," Beck said. "I swear to you, these guys are sabotaging us. They’re sabotaging us. What good are the Republicans?" John Thune took a 2-week vacation knowing his DHS funding deal wouldn’t pass the House. House Republicans were not satisfied with the Senate’s plan to exclude funding for ICE, with House Speaker Mike Johnson calling it a "joke." Neither chamber is set to return to Washington until April 13. Beck accused Thune and Senate Republicans of "standing in the way" of Trump’s agenda. "John Thune thought you’d be okay with that. No, he did. He thought you’d be totally cool with that," Beck continued. "You know, he’s like hey I know the Republicans. Republicans don’t want that. They’re not really all about border security. They didn’t really vote for the president in record numbers because they wanted border security. They just knew he was just saying that. But he wasn’t just saying that, he was actually trying to do something and you guys keep standing in the way! … The president has got to call them back into session. Article II, Section III, extraordinary occasions. I think this is an extraordinary occasion.".

Univision [3/30/2026 1:59 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports in a press conference, Karoline Leavitt stated that Democratic members of Congress are creating a dangerous financial vacuum that compromises U.S. security. By denying funding to the Department of Homeland Security , the opposition has caused the resignation of 500 officers and a collapse in morale among border personnel . The government links this budget shortfall to an attempt to obstruct ICE deportations and allow illegal immigrants to enter the country. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [3/30/2026 5:13 PM, Tami Luhby, 19874K] reports tens of thousands more Department of Homeland Security workers are now being paid during the record partial government shutdown after President Donald Trump ordered the agency to send Transportation Security Administration employees their back pay. But tens of thousands of other DHS staffers — including Federal Emergency Management Agency workers, civilians in the US Coast Guard, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency employees — are still reporting for work without being compensated. Nearly 92% of DHS’ 272,000 employees are continuing to work during the shutdown, which began February 14 after Congress failed to fund the agency for the remainder of the fiscal year. There’s no end in sight to the impasse. Lawmakers are on a roughly two-week break for Easter and Passover, after the Senate and House passed conflicting funding bills late last week. Many of those DHS employees are being paid during the lapse, though the precise number is unclear. DHS is using money from last summer’s "big, beautiful bill" to continue compensating certain employees — particularly those involved in immigration enforcement, one of Trump’s top priorities. Paychecks for sworn law enforcement officers in ICE, CBP and the Secret Service, as well as for Coast Guard military personnel, are being funded by the "big, beautiful bill," according to a senior administration official. Other positions that work on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and border security priorities, such as technology specialists and attorneys, are also being paid through the president’s domestic policy package, the official said. The agency is still working on sending the TSA workers the balance of their pay from the partial check they received in late February, DHS said in a statement Monday. Workers, however, are waiting to hear whether they’ll receive their next paycheck in two weeks, as scheduled. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents many DHS staffers, is calling attention to the fact that Trump’s directive did not cover all of the agency’s workers.

Federal News Network [3/30/2026 4:05 PM, Terry Gerton, 1297K] Video: HERE reports Congress is heading into the Easter recess with the Department of Homeland Security still unfunded and no clear path to a deal. The president’s move to ensure TSA agents continue getting paid may buy time, but it doesn’t resolve the broader standoff or the demands piling up behind it.

New York Post [3/30/2026 3:10 PM, Ryan King, 40934K] reports members of Congress have been spotted enjoying the good life in casinos, at Disney World, and on overseas jaunts — while thousands of Department of Homeland Security workers go unpaid and airport security lines continue to wrap around the building. Both the House and Senate adjourned last week for so-called "work from district" time, despite no agreement on sending the longest shutdown in US history. Talks between Dems — who are using funding for the Transportation Security Administration and other vital Homeland Security agencies hostage in an effort to impose restrictions on ICE — and the GOP collapsed before the recess. TSA agents — who make an average of $46,000 per year — started getting some back pay on Monday, put only because of an executive order from President Trump. Other DHS workers haven’t been paid since mid-February. "Congress needs to come back," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. "Democrats need to fund the Department of Homeland Security." Right now, there are no plans for either chamber of Congress to gavel back into session early. On Monday, the GOP didn’t attempt to wrangle any DHS funding bill through the Senate’s pro forma session. The Senate had passed a bill to fund all of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Customs and Border Protection, in the wee Friday morning hours. The House rejected that, and instead, passed a 60-day stopgap measure to keep all of DHS open through May 22. But despite Trump’s executive order, thousands of federal workers in other DHS agencies still remain without paychecks, including support staff for ICE, CBP, Coast Guard, and more.

Daily Wire [3/30/2026 8:56 AM, Cameron Arcand, 2314K] reports that Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) is calling on President Donald Trump to force the Senate to return from their Easter break as the Department of Homeland Security shutdown drags on. "President Trump has the power to convene the Senate under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution ‘on extraordinary Occasions,’" the Utah Republican posted to X on Sunday. "If a department with 260,000 employees (DHS) going unfunded isn’t an ‘extraordinary occasion’—especially while the Senate is out on a two-week recess during that shutdown with no plans to resolve the impasse beyond ‘we’ll deal with that in two weeks’—I don’t know what is," Lee added. The Senate held a pro forma session on Monday morning, but made no progress toward funding DHS. Last week, the Senate approved a DHS funding deal that excluded ICE and Border Patrol, which Trump opposes, whereas the House passed a bill late on Friday that would extend funding for 60 days for the entire department. Both chambers were permitted to go home after passing their bills. During the White House press briefing on Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump is "encouraging Congress to come back to Washington to permanently fix this problem and to fund and reopen the Department of Homeland Security entirely." The Daily Wire reached out to the White House for comment.

FOX News [3/30/2026 2:27 PM, Stephen Sorace and Patrick Ward, 37576K] reports President Donald Trump has spoken with the family of Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old college student who was allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant in Chicago earlier this month, Fox News has learned. A White House official confirmed to Fox News on Monday that Trump spoke with Gorman’s family, though did not immediately share details about the conversation the president had with her loved ones. Gorman, a New York native who was attending Loyola University Chicago, was killed at around 1:06 a.m. on March 19 while with friends near a pier in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. Officials allege Jose Medina-Medina, 25, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, fired one shot at the student, killing her.

New York Times [3/30/2026 10:57 AM, Hamed Aleaziz, 148038K] reports in his first days as head of the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin has stuck to a suit and tie, not the ICE-emblazoned bulletproof vest worn by his predecessor, Kristi Noem, in her debut video when she started the job. While Ms. Noem, cameras in tow, growled about “getting the dirtbags off the streets,” Mr. Mullin has worked toward a less flashy debut: briefing members of Congress on the effects of the government shutdown, attending White House meetings and doing a video talking up the people he now oversees. “I think I have the greatest employees working at D.H.S. ever — I mean that sincerely,” he said in a video he posted on social media. It remains to be seen whether the more diplomatic style of Mr. Mullin, a former Republican senator for Oklahoma, will help him achieve President Trump’s hard-line immigration policy and navigate the intense backlash triggered by the department’s deportation tactics. Mr. Mullin, 48, must now also look inside an agency that critics say was badly damaged under Ms. Noem, though she has said she worked with the full backing of the White House. He has taken over a department that is in declining public repute, especially after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January.

Daily Signal [3/30/2026 1:56 PM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 474K] reports President Donald Trump addressed concerns that his plan to use the Senate’s reconciliation procedure to pass the SAVE America Act will fail. "The parliamentarian is going to have to make a decision on that," he said on Sunday in response to a question from The Daily Signal. Reconciliation allows for the Senate’s expedited approval of budget legislation. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told The Daily Signal last week that the White House wants to use reconciliation to pass the voter ID bill, requiring only 51 votes for its passage instead of the normal 60 votes. However, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who sponsored the SAVE America Act in the Senate, said that process is "essentially impossible" because the bill doesn’t concern the budget, making it likely that the Senate parliamentarian will strike it down. When asked about concerns over using reconciliation to pass the bill, Trump said the Senate should end the filibuster, where 60 votes are required to end debate and move a bill to the floor for final passage. "I say, end the filibuster," he said. "Terminate the filibuster. Just vote, and you’ll get everything you want.".

AP [3/30/2026 8:32 PM, Jake Offenhartz, 35287K] reports Federal prosecutors are investigating whether a New York City Council member and her sister, an aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul, accepted bribes or kickbacks in connection with the appropriation of city funds to a migrant shelter provider, according to a copy of a search warrant obtained by The Associated Press. The warrant, signed March 19, seeks evidence of possible criminal violations involving Councilmember Farah Louis, a Brooklyn Democrat, and Debbie Louis, who serves as Hochul’s assistant secretary of New York City intergovernmental affairs. It also names Edu Hermelyn, the husband of state Assembly member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who chairs the Brooklyn Democratic Party. A spokesperson for Hochul confirmed that Debbie Louis was placed on leave last week after the governor learned of the federal corruption investigation. A person who answered a phone number listed for Louis promptly hung up after being asked about the probe. Voicemail messages seeking comment from Farah Louis and Edu Hermelyn were not returned. The warrant, for a phone connected to the investigation, said prosecutors are seeking information about whether the three received benefits in exchange for actions taken on behalf of BHRAGS Home Care Inc., a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that provides in-home services to the sick and elderly. In 2022, as an influx of asylum seekers began arriving in the city, the nonprofit expanded its mission to include emergency shelters for migrants and other homeless services. Records show they have since received more than a dozen contracts, totaling over $200 million, from the Department of Homeless Services. An attorney for the executive director of BHRAGS, Roberto Samedy, declined to comment. The warrant also seeks records of money transfers and communications between the officials and Edouardo St. Fort, a former New York Police Department sergeant who retired in 2023. The same year, records show his security company, Fort NYC Security, received a $3 million contract from the Department of Homeless Services. An email and voice message left with St. Fort was not returned.

Reuters [3/30/2026 4:22 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports a federal appeals court on Monday appeared skeptical that a judge in California had the authority to rule on a nationwide basis that the Trump ​administration cannot subject people arrested in its immigration crackdown to detention without a chance to be released on bond. A three-judge panel ‌of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at oral arguments appeared open to continuing to pause nationwide rulings the judge issued in class action litigation after a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer said the rulings were fueling "judicial chaos" in cases over the detention policy. Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign told the judges that thousands of people had ⁠filed lawsuits throughout the country challenging the ability of President Donald Trump’s administration to detain them without bond hearings before immigration judges, a question he said ​the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately likely decide. Yet U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California, wrongly decided to "preempt" hundreds of her colleagues hearing cases by ​individual detainees by declaring the administration’s policy unlawful on a nationwide basis, Ensign said. She wrongly expanded her December ruling in February, he added, by vacating a key decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals that had adopted the administration’s legal position, after the chief immigration judge told her colleagues the ​BIA’s ruling, and not Sykes’ decision, was what bound them. U.S. ​Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, a Trump ​appointee, said the case raised "broader questions ⁠about the scope of habeas jurisdiction." The 9th Circuit panel earlier this month ​issued an administrative order ⁠temporarily pausing Sykes’ declaratory judgment to the extent it extended beyond the Central District of California and halting her order vacating the BIA’s decision while it considered the administration’s stay request. Ensign said Sykes’ decisions should remain on hold given that the 5th and 8th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals in recent weeks upheld the administration’s ⁠policy, in rulings ​that reached conclusions contradicting Sykes’ holding.

Washington Examiner [3/30/2026 3:50 PM, Emily Hallas, 1147K] reports police arrested dozens at a massive Los Angeles demonstration protesting President Donald Trump over the weekend. The No Kings demonstration was part of a nationwide protest against the Trump administration, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which event organizers described as "masked secret police terrorizing our communities." Throughout the day, thousands participated in the event in California’s largest city before the demonstration grew tense. In the late afternoon, a small group of protesters began clashing with authorities outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, the site of other protests in recent months and where ICE holds detainees. The Los Angeles Police Department went on tactical alert in reaction to the chaos, deploying tear gas. On Sunday, the LAPD said it arrested 75 people in connection with the confrontation the prior day. Authorities declared an unlawful assembly after a small group of between 150 and 200 protesters began throwing rocks, bottles, and concrete at officers with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. Video footage showed violent graffiti saying "Kill Your Local ICE Agent" was painted on walls near the detention center. At least two officers were hit by concrete chunks and required medical care, officials told KTLA. Some people appeared to come prepared for the chaos, wearing respirators, goggles, and other protective equipment.

FOX News [3/30/2026 8:00 PM, Joseph A. Wulfsohn, 37576K] reports White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed the minimal coverage the liberal networks have given to the murder of 18-year-old Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman. Leavitt took a moment at Monday’s press briefing to highlight a recent study from the Media Research Center showing CBS News dedicating two minutes and one second of coverage towards Gorman’s murder while ABC News spent just one minute and 19 seconds and NBC News spent just 23 seconds total. She tied the murder, allegedly committed by an illegal immigrant who was roaming the streets of Chicago after being released into the country by the Biden administration, to the ongoing showdown on Capitol Hill as Democrats continue to block DHS funding over its objections to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "I think her life was worth more than 23 seconds on cable television," Leavitt said. "And I think the people in this room have a responsibility to report on cases like this because it just exemplifies why the president believes so strongly in deporting illegal aliens from our communities.". Representatives for ABC News, CBS News and NBC News did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. While the three broadcast networks offered scarce attention to Gorman, the liberal cable networks turned a blind eye. MS NOW has not mentioned the slain college student once after her murder began gaining national attention, according to Grabien transcripts. CNN has also avoided the story with the exception of a guest, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who invoked Gorman’s murder during an interview and a separate instance where CNN aired live coverage of a separate White House briefing where Leavitt previously mentioned Gorman. DHS confirmed that the suspect, Jose Medina-Medina, is "a Venezuelan criminal illegal alien" who was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol and released into the country under the Biden administration in 2023. Medina-Medina was released again one month later after being arrested for shoplifting. The Chicago Police Department formally charged Medina-Medina with first-degree murder. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze [3/30/2026 12:30 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1556K] reports that thousands participated in the No Kings rally in downtown Los Angeles, which escalated into a violent riot, resulting in dozens of arrests. The Department of Homeland Security stated that a group of roughly 1,000 people surrounded a federal government office on Saturday evening. "Rioters are throwing rocks, bottles, and cement blocks at officers. Two officers hit with the cement blocks are receiving medical care," the DHS said. The Los Angeles Police Department reported that it arrested 75 people in connection with Saturday’s protest. The arrests occurred after a dispersal order was issued at 5:30 p.m. "Several splinter groups remain in the Civic Center Area hours after the demonstration has concluded. Multiple dispersal orders have been given with multiple arrests being made," the LAPD wrote Saturday evening. The LAPD stated that 66 adults and eight juveniles were arrested for failure to disperse. Another individual was arrested for possession of a dirk or dagger. "Our ICE law enforcement officers are facing an 8,000% increase in death threats as they arrest murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists from American communities," DHS said. "Federal agents have started arresting those who assaulted our personnel at the Los Angeles courthouse. To those who were smashing concrete blocks and throwing them at our officers, we have you on video. We will find you and arrest you too. You’ve been warned," First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli stated.

Newsweek [3/31/2026 12:00 AM, Billal Rahman, 52220K] reports internal emails from a senior Trump official show he suggested federal immigration agents responding to protests in Los Angeles last summer should have used immediate physical force to disperse demonstrators. Joseph Mazzara, then-acting general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), wrote in a June 11 email discussing the response to the Los Angeles protests that troops and agents deployed in the city should have immediately used physical force to disperse crowds. “They should have, when they brought the [troops] in, just started hitting the rioters and arresting everyone that couldn’t get away from them,” Mazzara wrote in an email obtained by the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). “No one likes being hit by a stick, and people tend to run when that starts happening in earnest.” Newsweek has contacted the DHS and the White House for via email comment.

Washington Post [3/30/2026 6:33 PM, Andy Beshear, 24826K] reports President Donald Trump’s executive order claiming to deny citizenship to children of immigrants in the United States temporarily or unlawfully has been uniformly blocked by lower courts, and on Wednesday the Supreme Court will hear arguments on both sides. The administration’s chances of a win in Trump v. Barbara are extremely low, but one question is whether the justices opt for a sweeping constitutional ruling or a narrower one that gives Congress room to legislate on the subject. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified after the Civil War to affirm the citizenship of Black Americans, says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” That excluded the children of foreign diplomats, wartime conquerors and members of Indian tribes — but would seem to include pretty much everyone else. The Trump administration nonetheless claims the citizenship clause doesn’t cover the children of certain noncitizen immigrants. The problem — and it’s a big one for a textualist court — is that the text doesn’t naturally include that exception. The Trump administration has no reservations about charging unlawful immigrants with crimes, which is a key way the government exercises jurisdiction over people. To overcome that intuitive reading of the 14th Amendment, the administration and its supporters excavate historical evidence to argue that the language had a narrower meaning in the past. Under the British monarchy, for example, the descendants of people subject to a foreign sovereign were not necessarily subjects of Britain. Did that principle transfer to the American colonies and 19th-century understanding? If so, then the 14th Amendment’s “subject to the jurisdiction” clause might allow for more limitations than the current practice. But revising settled practice requires a high burden of proof. This case echoes Trump v. Anderson, the 2024 dispute about whether states could throw Trump off the presidential ballot based on another historically contested part of the 14th Amendment. The challengers mustered some intriguing evidence to support their view, but it was too fragmented and ambiguous to support a radical break from the status quo. One option for the justices is to leave the constitutional debate for another day. That’s because — as an amicus brief from 217 members of Congress points out — the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 probably codified birthright citizenship independently of the 14th Amendment. It uses the same “subject to the jurisdiction” language as the 14th Amendment, and legislative debates in the 20th century strongly imply that members of Congress took birthright citizenship for granted.

NewsMax [3/30/2026 10:39 AM, Michael Dorstewitz, 3760K] reports that the issue of birthright citizenship is scheduled to be argued on April 1 in the Supreme Court, and an opinion is expected in late June, early July. The citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, which liberals claim grants citizenship to all persons born in the United States regardless of the circumstances, has worked against U.S. interests for decades. Investigative reporter and author Peter Schweizer released a new book last month titled "The Invisible Coup," in which he explains how other countries encourage "birth tourism" in the United States to create "anchor babies." The wife of drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán traveled to Los Angeles in 2011 to give birth and American citizenship to their child. "A U.S. citizen who has a baby in another country must apply for citizenship for the child through the consulate, which would have been complicated by being married to the most famous criminal in North America," Schweizer wrote in his book. In another case, Juan Carlos Valencia González recently took the helm of the notorious "Jalisco New Generation" cartel. His mother, a Mexican national who also works in the cartel, traveled to California 41 years ago to give birth and U.S. citizenship to her son, the then-future crime lord. But this could all change by mid-summer. The intent of Congress in approving and the states in ratifying the Reconstruction Amendments was to make the emancipated slaves free Americans in every respect. Slavery was banned, they enjoyed equal protection of the law, and they could vote. The 14th Amendment wasn’t about foreign nationals creating "anchor babies," or establishing a new industry called "birth tourism.".

New York Times [3/30/2026 5:03 AM, Martha S. Jones and Kate Masur, 148038K] reports on Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship as we have known it. The court’s eventual opinion in the case, Trump v. Barbara, will almost certainly hinge on how the justices interpret the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, 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.” The court will probably also respond to the first words of the president’s March 19 brief, which asserts that “The ‘main object’ of the Citizenship Clause was to grant citizenship to freed slaves and their children.” That is a polite version of a more informal claim he has made elsewhere, that birthright citizenship was intended only for “the babies of slaves.” However the court decides, history shows that Mr. Trump is wrong. Yes, the 14th Amendment affirmed the citizenship of all Black Americans, most of whom were either newly freed or descended from people who had been enslaved. However, Mr. Trump’s extremely narrow interpretation disregards the historical record. The Senate arrived at the final language of the Citizenship Clause only after a robust debate about the implications of writing birthright citizenship into the Constitution. The 39th Congress took up the citizenship question amid a broader effort to set the nation on a new, more inclusive course after the Civil War. At the end of 1865, it established a Joint Committee on Reconstruction, which began drafting the 14th Amendment. The House passed a version of the amendment that did not include the now familiar Citizenship Clause. In the Senate, however, Jacob Howard, Republican of Michigan, argued that such a clause was needed. He noted the absence of a concrete definition of citizenship — and who was entitled to it — in the existing Constitution: “It is not, perhaps, very easy to define with accuracy what is meant by the expression, ‘citizen of the United States,’ although that expression occurs twice in the Constitution.”

New York Times [3/30/2026 8:21 PM, Tim Arango, Jazmine Ulloa and Allison McCann, 148038K] reports the government of Mexico on Monday condemned the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and voiced concerns about the deaths of its citizens in immigration detention facilities in the United States. Top Mexican officials on Monday, including President Claudia Sheinbaum and diplomats in Los Angeles, vowed to take legal steps to pressure the Trump administration over conditions in detention facilities, including what lawyers and detainees have described as poor drinking water and inadequate medical care. The rebukes from Mexico came after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced on Monday that another Mexican man had died on Wednesday at a detention facility in California. The man, Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano, 51, had been in custody since late February and, according to a news release from ICE, had suffered from diabetes and hypertension. He died in Adelanto, Calif., about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, after being found unconscious in his bunk and taken to a hospital. “He received constant medical care while he was in custody, including daily medication to treat his illness,” ICE said in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security has maintained that its detainees receive adequate medical care and nutrition. Mexican officials did not directly dispute the administration’s account of Mr. Romas-Solano’s death. But Jesus Eduardo Arias, a lawyer for the Ramos family, said that he was conducting a “forensic, independent investigation” to determine the cause of death. Vanessa Calva Ruis, Mexico’s director general for consular protection and strategic planning, said that Mr. Ramos-Solano’s death was “not an isolated case, but rather a reflection of an alarming and unacceptable trend.” She said Mexico would “exhaust all legal, diplomatic and multilateral avenues to demand justice.” The Mexican consulate in Los Angeles said that Mr. Ramos-Solano was the 14th Mexican national to die in ICE custody since Mr. Trump took office and that four of those deaths had occurred in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Mexican consulate said Mr. Ramos-Solano had been living in the United States for 28 years. Ms. Sheinbaum said on Monday that Mexico planned to take several steps to protest the deaths, including filing a brief in support of a federal lawsuit over detention conditions and raising the matter with the Organization of American States, which promotes democracy and human rights in the Americas. She also said Mexican senators would send letters about inadequate medical care to American lawmakers.

Breitbart [3/30/2026 6:32 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports an illegal alien felon is on the run after weaponizing his vehicle to attack Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Breitbart News has learned. ICE agents are pleading with the public to help locate Xa Lee, an illegal alien felon from Laos who was ordered deported from the United States 16 years ago. Laos has been previously convicted of drunk driving, vehicle theft, stolen property, conspiracy, petty theft, battery, resisting law enforcement, and felony possession of a firearm. According to ICE officials, on March 25, agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop to arrest Lee when he attempted to flee by hitting an agent with his car. Agents pulled tasers on Lee but he fled the scene and has been a fugitive since. The agent who was hit by Lee’s car did not sustain any injuries. "This is just the latest in a disturbing trend of vehicle attacks. We are calling on the public to report any sightings of this criminal illegal alien to ICE at (866) 347-2423," the Department of Homeland Security’s Lauren Bis said.

Daily Caller [3/30/2026 11:05 AM, Jason Hopkins, 803K] reports that federal immigration authorities are seeking custody of an illegal migrant allowed into the country under the Biden administration and now accused of two separate murders. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged a detainer for Angelvis Jesus Quintero Fernandez in Charlotte, North Carolina, a sanctuary haven long known for refusing cooperation with immigration agents, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Quintero Fernandez, a 22-year-old Venezuelan national, is accused of gunning down two people just months apart in Mecklenburg County. "Because of the Biden administration’s disastrous CBP One app, this illegal alien was allowed to come into the country and commit these murders," Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement provided to the DCNF. "We are calling on Charlotte sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this murderer from jail back into our communities." "We need cooperation from sanctuary jurisdictions to make America safe again," Bis continued. "No one wants this murderer in their communities." Upon responding to an assault with a deadly weapon call on March 22, law enforcement officers discovered a victim with life-threatening injuries sustained from a gunshot wound, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD). The victim was transported to a local hospital but died from his injuries on March 24. The ongoing investigation led law enforcement to Quintero Fernandez, who was already in Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office custody, according to the CMPD.

Newsweek [3/30/2026 9:08 AM, Toby Meyjes, 52220K] reports Amnesty International has called on the Trump administration to guarantee Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will not conduct civil immigration enforcement at or around 2026 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches and fan festivals. Last month, acting ICE director Todd Lyons had refused to rule out enforcement action near games and said agents would be a "key part" of the overall security apparatus for the tournament. In a report published on Monday, titled "Humanity Must Win," London-based Amnesty called on the U.S. and host cities to "end indiscriminate raids, ethnic profiling, arbitrary arrests, mass detention and unlawful deportations in the USA." Newsweek has contacted an ICE spokesperson for comment in an email sent outside of regular working hours. Acting ICE director Todd Lyons, speaking before a House panel in February, said: "ICE, specifically Homeland Security Investigations, is a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup."

FOX News [3/30/2026 4:46 PM, Peter Pinedo, 37576K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are continuing deportation operations despite a lapse in federal funding and being deployed to assist with massive airport security lines across the country, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told Fox News Digital. According to the department, ICE officers continuing immigration enforcement operations nationwide arrested child predators, rapists, drug traffickers and a member of the violent Salvadoran MS-13 gang over the weekend. This comes as ICE officers were seen assisting the understaffed Transportation Security Administration and airport staff at terminals across the country, including New York City, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta and New Orleans. On Sunday, Trump border czar Tom Homan told CBS News that ICE agents will "continue a nice presence" at airports until they "feel like they’re 100% … in a posture where they can do no normal operations." DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis addressed concerns that ICE would not be able to sustain its normal operations while assisting TSA by telling Fox News Digital that ICE "will continue arresting public safety threats from our communities and will not allow the Democrats to slow us down from making America safe again." Bis said that "over the weekend, ICE arrested more dangerous criminals, including an MS-13 gang member, child predators, rapists and drug traffickers."

Washington Examiner [3/30/2026 3:50 PM, Rachel Schilke, 1147K] reports a monthlong government shutdown over Department of Homeland Security funding has given Immigration and Customs Enforcement the opportunity to improve its image with the public after two fatal shootings and deportation methods led to significant voter disapproval. ICE officers, tasked with helping to ease wait times and long lines at airports across the United States, have been filmed interacting with travelers, assisting with their luggage tags or children, giving the agency a much-needed public relations boost ahead of a critical midterm election cycle where the GOP trifecta will receive a temperature check at the ballot boxes. An ICE officer was credited with saving a toddler’s life at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York last week after the 1-year-old child became unresponsive and was unable to breathe, per DHS. The officer performed the Heimlich maneuver, with the child beginning to breathe a few seconds later, and was later determined well enough to fly. "The ICE agent sprang into action and saved this one-year-old child’s life. If our agent had not been there and stepped up, this would have been a tragic outcome," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. "Despite the endless smears and lies told about them by sanctuary politicians and the media, our ICE officers show up every day to protect the Homeland and their fellow Americans." The ICE officer’s heroics at JFK was one of several moments caught on camera showing ICE working in good faith with travelers as they seek to alleviate issues from the shutdown. The absence of TSA workers prompted President Donald Trump to call "our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before."

NBC News [3/30/2026 4:17 PM, Laura Strickler and Colleen Long, 42967K] reports so far this year, 14 people have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, including a Mexican man who was found unresponsive last week at a facility outside Los Angeles, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security. As of mid-February, ICE was holding more than 68,000 immigrants, among the highest numbers ever, according to federal data. The figure fluctuates as immigrants get deported and others are taken into custody. In 2025, ICE reported 33 total in-custody deaths and in 2024 there were 11. As the Trump administration has sought to drastically increase space to detain immigrants as part of its mass deportation campaign, holding facilities have struggled with disease and overcrowding. The Trump administration has said it is shifting its deportation strategy to increase its focus on arresting and deporting immigrants who have criminal records, following the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration officers during deportation operations in Minnesota. On March 25, Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano, who was in federal custody in California after he was convicted of possession of a controlled substance and theft, was found by security to be unresponsive in his bunk. ICE said in a statement that staff performed CPR and other life-saving procedures, and he was taken to Victor Valley Global Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said during her daily press conference Monday that Mexico would take stronger measures to protest following the reported death, focusing particularly in the Los Angeles region. Ramos-Solano’s cause of death was not immediately made public, and Homeland Security officials didn’t respond to questions about his cause of death.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [3/30/2026 7:24 PM, Ted Hesson, 38315K]

ABC News [3/30/2026 11:12 AM, Armando Garcia, Laura Romero, Frank Esposito, and Ryann Jones, 34146K] reports last week, Presner Nelson went to a shopping mall with one goal in mind: to find a suit his brother, who died in immigration federal custody in March, would wear in his casket. Nelson’s brother, Emmanuel Damas, died after allegedly complaining for roughly two weeks of a toothache that Nelson believes could have been treated. "This was the first time I had to do this in my life -- it was not easy," Nelson told ABC News. The death of Damas, a Haitian immigrant who Nelson says arrived in the U.S. legally and had a pending Temporary Protected Status application, comes amid growing concerns from lawmakers and immigrant advocates about the conditions in migrant detention facilities, and a sharp increase in immigrant deaths in detention under the second Trump administration as it pursues its immigration crackdown. According to an ABC News analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data and the number of detainee deaths provided to Congress from ICE, the first 14 months of the second Trump administration represent the most deadly period for the federal detention system in recent years -- with the exception of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic contributed to detention deaths. As of March 25, 44 people have died in government custody during the current Trump administration, according to figures shared by lawmakers, with two of those fatalities being victims of a shooting last September at a Dallas detention facility. The rise in fatalities comes as the detention population reaches record highs, with over 70,000 people currently detained in federal immigration custody. The data analysis reveals a stark and rapid acceleration in the mortality rate within federal facilities. While the figure was as low as one death per 100,000 admissions in 2022, that number surged to about seven deaths per 100,000 admissions in 2025, even when excluding the two people shot while in custody. And in just the first ten weeks of 2026, the rate is currently at 12 deaths per 100,000 admissions.

Breitbart [3/30/2026 11:56 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports that, on Monday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “Chris Jansing Reports,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) responded to a question on what Democrats have gotten out of the DHS shutdown by saying that “the ICE issue is certainly prominent in a way that it wasn’t a few months ago. I think that’s part of the reason Secretary Noem got forced out. I think it’s also part of the reason the White House has stepped forward and said they’ll put some things on the table.” Ivey said, “Republicans are feeling heat, too, when they go back home. Their people want to be able to get through these lines and not have to get to the airport four, five, six hours before their flight’s supposed to leave. So, let’s get it done.” Guest host Alex Witt then asked, “The shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history. So, have Democrats gotten anything out of this, thusfar?” Ivey answered, “Well, there have been no deals yet, so there’s nothing that’s come from a deal. But I think the ICE issue is certainly prominent in a way that it wasn’t a few months ago. I think that’s part of the reason Secretary Noem got forced out. I think it’s also part of the reason the White House has stepped forward and said they’ll put some things on the table. I think, before she left, she was talking about partially putting body cameras on people and maintaining the footage, sort of steps in the right direction. But I’ve got to say, the things Democrats are holding out for on this front are pretty standard fare.”

Washington Examiner [3/30/2026 2:00 PM, Guy Benson, 1147K] reports late last week, Senate Democrats’ weekslong blockade of Department of Homeland Security funding appeared to have finally drawn to a close — yet the partial shutdown continues. On Day 42 of their disruption, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) caucus agreed to reopen most of the DHS, minus Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. They declared victory, congratulating themselves on presenting a united front. But what did they actually achieve? Our Washington Examiner colleague Byron York correctly notes that "in the past, the party that attached conditions to re-opening the government, or parts of the government, lost the shutdown. Now, Democrats have gotten away with attaching conditions to re-opening the government, and Republicans have agreed to a deal funding most of DHS, but not its immigration enforcement and deportation operations." That’s true, and Democrats have established some recent precedents by embracing shutdowns that they may come to regret in the future — though perhaps they’ve calculated that Republicans would never "get away with" adopting this exact same approach because the "news" media would blitz them relentlessly for doing so. Democrats generally enjoyed "both sides" water-carrying coverage over the last several weeks. York argues the GOP should never have negotiated at all with Democrats, who caused and sustained the shutdown by filibustering a bipartisan appropriations bill and attaching political conditions to lifting their obstruction. "You don’t negotiate with people who are shutting down all or part of the government," he writes. "The proper response to a threatened shutdown is: ‘Re-open the government, and then we’ll talk about your issue. But first the government has to be re-opened.’ That is always the public’s view. Instead, the GOP agreed to start talks. Once that happened, it legitimized the Democratic position of shutting down part of the government, in this case TSA, while demanding changes in immigration enforcement. Instead of seeing Democrats shutting down TSA over an unrelated policy dispute, the public saw two sides negotiating and unable to agree.". Hence, the shared blame and muddied waters. These are strong points. But to repeat the question posed above, what did Senate Democrats actually accomplish with this?

Bloomberg [3/30/2026 7:00 AM, Alicia A. Caldwell, 18082K] reports Democratic lawmakers are starting an investigation into the Trump administration’s plan to spend billions of dollars buying and retrofitting warehouses as immigrant detention centers, ramping up scrutiny of a key piece of the White House’s push for mass deportations. In a letter, the group of more than 50 US senators and representatives asked contractors and real estate companies for details of their roles in the $38 billion plan. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking to streamline a network of more than 200 local, state and privately-run facilities into 34 government-owned jails, with at least some operated by contractors. “ICE has reportedly followed a non-competitive and potentially wasteful acquisition process for these warehouses — exacerbating concerns about companies earning huge profits at taxpayers’ expense,” the lawmakers said in the letter. “These warehouses were built to hold products, not people.” The probe underscores the growing political controversy over how the Department of Homeland Security is spending about $170 billion that it was awarded under last year’s Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Questions around DHS spending contributed to the ouster of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem earlier this month. Her replacement, former Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, has said he would review jail locations. The Democratic lawmakers sent the letter to GEO Group Inc. and CoreCivic Inc., two of the largest private jail companies, as well as to contractors KVG LLC and GardaWorld Federal Services and real estate firms Newmark Group and PNK Group.

Breitbart [3/30/2026 2:00 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports an illegal alien, released into the United States by former President Joe Biden’s administration, is accused of two murders in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, a sanctuary jurisdiction. On Monday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials issued a statement, pleading with Mecklenburg County officials not to release 22-year-old illegal alien Jesus Quintero Fernandez of Venezuela from jail without first notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of his release. "Because of the Biden administration’s disastrous CBP One app, this illegal alien was allowed to come into the country and commit these murders," DHS’s Lauren Bis said in a statement: We are calling on Charlotte sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this murderer from jail back into our comminutes. We need cooperation from sanctuary jurisdictions to make America safe again. No one wants this murderer in their communities. [Emphasis added]. Indeed, Fernandez used the Biden administration CBP One mobile app to schedule an appointment at the southern border in July 2023. He was subsequently approved for release into the U.S. interior.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [3/30/2026 5:29 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K]

NBC News [3/30/2026 8:28 PM, Courtney Kube, 42967K] reports ICE agents will be stationed outside graduation events for the nation’s newest Marines to identify whether any of their family members are undocumented, according to the Marine Corps. As the U.S. continues the war in Iran, the Marine Corps has boosted protection measures on bases, requiring everyone to present REAL IDs, U.S. passports or U.S. birth certificates to access any sites. Undocumented immigrants are generally ineligible for federal REAL IDs and don’t have U.S. passports or birth certificates. So people without identifying documents who arrive at the gate of Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island in Beaufort, South Carolina, for recruit family days and graduation events this week may now have to answer to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, the Marine Corps said. Because of “increased force protection measures” at the recruit depot, "federal law enforcement personnel will be present at installation access points to conduct enhanced screening and lawful immigration status inquiries during recruit family and graduation days,” a message on the Parris Island website read. While sometimes family members don’t have proper documentation, it wasn’t clear why ICE had decided to station at Parris Island. A DHS spokesperson said any suggestion that ICE would make arrests was false. "ICE will not be making arrests at the basic training graduation in Paris Island, SC,” the spokesperson said. Graduation is Friday morning, but family members are invited to visit the base and celebrate their sons’ and daughters’ completion of the grueling training beginning Wednesday. Marine recruits aren’t allowed to see their families during the 13-week boot camp. The spokesperson encouraged all visitors to be prepared for additional screening measures. “To help ensure a smooth and timely process, guests should bring proper identification and limit the number of items they carry onto the installation,” the spokesperson said.

Reported similarly:
Telemundo [3/30/2026 11:29 PM, Courtney Kube, 2524K]

AP [3/31/2026 12:07 AM, Charlotte Kramon and David A. Lieb, 2238K] reports that, over the past three decades, the collection of DNA from convicted criminals has become standard in the U.S. justice system, and many states now also swab people arrested for serious crimes. Legislation awaiting a final vote in Georgia would take that a step further by collecting DNA from people charged with less serious misdemeanors — but only if federal immigration authorities want them detained. That could include immigrants not ultimately deported. If enacted, Georgia’s measure would make it the third state to single out immigrants believed to be in the U.S. illegally for the collection of genetic material that wouldn’t be taken from others. Florida passed a similar law in 2023. And Oklahoma in 2009 authorized DNA collection from immigrants in the U.S. illegally, though it remains subject to funding. The new legislation comes as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to expand its use of DNA and biometrics in immigration enforcement as it carries out a plan to deport millions of people from the U.S. “It is one example of something we are seeing across the landscape, which is government actors at all levels vacuuming up DNA in all available contexts,” said Stevie Glaberson, director of research and advocacy at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown University law school. The FBI launched the National DNA Index System in 1998 to compile DNA samples submitted by federal, state and local authorities. It’s grown in size and scope and now contains more than 26 million DNA profiles, many from people convicted of crimes. A federal law enacted 20 years ago allowed the attorney general to expand DNA collection to people arrested and to noncitizens detained under federal authority. But because of exceptions authorized by federal officials, few immigrants had their DNA collected. That changed in 2020, during Trump’s first term, when a new Department of Justice rule took away much of that discretion. Over the next five years, the Department of Homeland Security added the DNA profiles of more than 2.6 million detainees to the national database, according to an analysis by the Center on Privacy and Technology. The department did not answer questions from The Associated Press about the percentage of detained immigrants whose DNA has been collected during Trump’s second term. But the department is looking to expand its authority. A proposed rule would allow it to collect DNA, including from U.S. citizens, to determine family relationships in immigrant benefit cases.

Axios [3/30/2026 6:20 AM, Annalise Frank, 17364K] reports Detroit police leaders say the department isn’t in the "immigration business" and mostly isn’t communicating with ICE. As immigration enforcement ramps up nationwide, some cities are navigating growing pressure from President Trump’s administration threatening funding cuts and legal action on those who publicly limit cooperation with ICE. The issue is pertinent in Detroit, with its large immigrant communities. The city’s approach has spurred questions following recent incidents in which officers were suspended over calling border agents. In response, Axios reviewed Detroit Police Department (DPD) policy and memos written to the City Council by DPD, the law department and the legislative policy division in early February in order to describe how DPD and federal immigration officials interact. Axios also submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to DPD on Feb. 12 for more information about its immigration policies and interactions with ICE, but hasn’t yet received a response. DPD declined to comment on the memos and the department’s ICE-related policies.

Axios [3/30/2026 6:15 AM, Joe Guillen, 17364K] reports the fight over a proposed ICE detention facility in Romulus has moved into a legal battle, while local opposition and political pressure continue. The lawsuit puts the project’s future in the hands of a federal judge. Catch up quick: Michigan and the city of Romulus sued last week to halt conversion of a warehouse at 7525 Cogswell St. into a detention center. The lawsuit argues federal officials failed to consult local governments, skipped required environmental reviews and did not consider alternative sites. Yes, but: Filing the lawsuit doesn’t pause the project — any delay would require a judge to step in, U-M law professor Samuel Bagenstos tells Axios. He previously served as general counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The case centers less on federal immigration authority and more on whether DHS followed required processes in selecting and planning the Romulus site, Bagenstos says. Neither DHS nor ICE has responded to questions about the lawsuit.

Telemundo51 [3/30/2026 4:15 PM, Staff, 162K] reports a Phoenix resident was fined nearly $2 million by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after failing to leave the country following a deportation order in 2010, according to the federal agency. Last Monday the 23rd, he received a letter that changed his life after learning he owes a million dollars.

The letter refers to the aforementioned fine, which has increased year after year since 2010. Public court records confirm Mario’s story. He was released in 2012 and claims he hasn’t been notified since. Telemundo contacted the immigration agency to inquire about the reasons for the deportation decision but received no response. Meanwhile, the Cuban man has 15 days to appeal and seek the peace of mind he says he so desperately needs. According to the lawyer, even if he self-exiles, the million-dollar figure will remain.

Los Angeles Times [3/30/2026 3:57 PM, Brittny Mejia and Ruben Vives, 12718K] reports a Southern California immigration detention center faces renewed scrutiny after federal officials confirmed the death of a detainee last week, marking the fourth fatality since September and contributing to what is becoming one of the deadliest years on record in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano, who was being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, died on March 25, according to ICE. He and the other three decedents were Mexican nationals, prompting the Mexican government to demand an immediate review of the facility, pointing to “serious omissions and evident deficiencies” in medical care. Ramos-Solano’s death raises the nationwide death toll in ICE custody in last three months of to 14. Ramos-Solano’s death has intensified concerns about conditions at the Adelanto facility, which is already the subject of a federal class-action lawsuit alleging widespread abuse. Detainees claim they have been subjected to mold, disease, inadequate food and water, and systemic medical neglect.

Telemundo [3/30/2026 4:20 PM, Staff, 2524K] reports authorities from the Mexican Consulate General in Los Angeles, accompanied by consuls, lawyers, and relatives of the victims, held a press conference regarding the recent deaths of Mexican nationals in detention centers, where at least 14 cases have been reported. Following the death of another immigrant in ICE custody at the Adelanto, California facility, the number of people who have died in the agency’s custody has risen to 44. This lawsuit was filed by Public Counsel of Los Angeles, citing unsanitary conditions, punitive isolation, limited basic needs including medical and mental health care, access to fresh air, adequate nutrition and water, as well as unsanitary living conditions. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that her government would exhaust all legal and diplomatic avenues to raise awareness of the problems occurring in some detention centers in the United States. Sheinbaum also announced that Mexico will bring the situation of Mexicans in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) following the death of another Mexican national on Friday. The mayor specified that her government will send letters to U.S. authorities to complain about the “deficient medical care” at the Adelanto detention center. ICE issued a statement this Monday announcing the death of Ramos-Solano, and specified that he was found “unconscious and unresponsive in his bunk” at the Adelanto facility, and was later transferred to a hospital where his death was confirmed.

San Francisco Chronicle [3/30/2026 5:27 PM, Bob Egelko, 3833K] reports the Trump administration has defied a federal judge’s order by sharing private information, including street addresses, of millions of low-income Americans with immigration officers who are conducting mass deportations, California and other states say in a court filing. The Trump administration doesn’t appear to be denying it. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of San Francisco issued an injunction last August ordering the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to stop providing data about recipients of Medicaid to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. The 78 million Americans who receive health care in the program, including 15 million Californians in Medi-Cal, provide personal information that the states forward to the federal government to verify their eligibility. Chhabria later eased his restriction and allowed disclosure of data about undocumented immigrants, who are eligible for Medicaid in California and some other states, while keeping the ban in place for others. But state officials say the Trump administration is ignoring those limits. Chhabria’s latest orders “stated explicitly that the data of citizens and lawful permanent residents is ‘off limits,’” but President Donald Trump’s health officials are apparently continuing to disclose those people’s personal information to ICE, lawyers for California and 21 other Democratic-led states said in a court filing last week. The Trump administration said in a March 13 court filing that ICE has kept its hands off the Medicaid data since Feb. 20. But the 22 states, led by California, asked Chhabria to hold a hearing April 30, require the administration to reveal the information that has been provided to ICE, and enforce his ban on further sharing of information.

FOX News [3/30/2026 9:36 PM, Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports an illegal alien with a long criminal history remains on the run after he attempted to hit a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer with his vehicle in California as authorities were trying to arrest him, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Monday. ICE was attempting to take Xa Lee, a fugitive and Laotian citizen, into custody on March 25 in Sacramento. Lee was driving when he was pulled over, according to DHS. During the vehicle stop, Lee attempted to flee and tried to strike an ICE officer with his car. "The officer, thankfully, did not sustain injuries. During the incident, ICE officers deployed their tasers. He fled the scene and remains at large," DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. "This is just the latest in a disturbing trend of vehicle attacks.". A federal immigration judge issued a deportation order for Lee in 2010. His criminal record includes convictions for vehicle theft, stolen property, conspiracy, petty theft, two DUIs, resisting an officer, battery, and felony possession of a firearm. DHS noted that Lee’s evasion of arrest came amid a history of webinars by Democratic elected officials who advised undocumented immigrants on how to evade ICE and report encounters with federal immigration authorities. The agency cited California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Dan Goldman, both Democrats. All four politicians have repeatedly called for the Trump administration to halt its deportation campaign targeting criminal illegal immigrants. "DHS is once again calling on sanctuary politicians, agitators, and the media to turn the temperature down and stop calling for violence and resistance against ICE law enforcement," the agency said. DHS requests that if the public has any information about Lee’s whereabouts, contact the ICE tip line at 866-347-2423 or online.

FOX News [3/30/2026 8:19 PM, Preston Mizell, 37576K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) slammed a California county for not honoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests for two illegal aliens accused of murdering a 24-year-old mother earlier this month. Franquin Inestroza-Martinez, a Honduran national, and Gerzon Jose Chirinos-Munguia, also of Honduras, were arrested in Santa Clara County for allegedly killing Kembery Chirinos-Flores with a shotgun in early January. Chirinos-Munguia is the father of Chirinos-Flores’ 5-year-old son, and was previously arrested in 2018 for battery and false imprisonment, and subsequently in 2019 for domestic battery and threatening crime with the intent of terrorizing, DHS said. He was released back into California without ICE being notified in both 2018 and 2019, according to DHS. "A man lost his life, and a child is now without a mother. These illegal aliens should have never been able to commit these horrific killings and must NEVER be released from jail into American communities," DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital in a statement. Inestroza-Martinez, the alleged accomplice of the boy’s father, also had an outstanding arrest warrant from New Jersey for the homicide of a 55-year-old in March 2025, according to DHS. DHS said he was deported from the U.S. in 2013, then again in 2018. He illegally re-entered the country at an unknown date and time before allegedly murdering both the man in New Jersey and Chirinos-Flores. DHS pointed to the California Value Act (CVA), a "sanctuary" law which prohibits local police from asking suspects about immigration status and limits cooperation between federal immigration agents and local authorities. "Instead of cooperating with ICE, Santa Clara sanctuary politicians REFUSED to honor ICE’s arrest detainer and will not notify ICE when these murderers are released from jail," Bis added. "This insanity of refusing to turn cold-blooded killers over to ICE must end.".

NPR [3/30/2026 3:59 PM, Ximena Bustillo, 28764K] reports the Homeland Security Department has lifted its total ban on reviewing asylum applications, though the pause remains in effect for about 40 countries. The Trump administration in November paused the processing of some 4 million asylum applications filed to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that oversees the processing of applications for visas, naturalizations and asylum. The pause came as a part of a slew of restrictions on immigration after an Afghan national shot two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 26, 2025. One of the Guard members died the next day from her injuries. At the time, the Trump administration called the move a national security necessity. Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the pause was indefinite while the agency figured out how to work through its backlog of nearly 4 million cases. The hold on processing will remain for three dozen countries that have been labeled as "high risk" and have travel restrictions to the U.S. The list includes mostly countries in Africa, as well as Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria. Still in effect are various other pauses on legal migration – including a pause on the issuing of immigrant visas for 75 countries, and a pause on all immigration applications from countries covered by the travel ban.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [3/30/2026 6:20 PM, Staff, 38315K]
The Hill [3/30/2026 5:46 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18170K]
Bloomberg [3/30/2026 10:20 AM, Hadriana Lowenkron, 763K]

NewsMax [3/30/2026 12:11 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K] reports that the Trump administration has partially resumed asylum processing after a freeze that began in November after a deadly D.C. shooting. Restrictions remain, however, for nationals of 39 countries under existing travel bans, according to Department of Homeland Security officials who spoke with CBS News. According to current policy, most asylum cases handled outside the courts have restarted. However, applications for work permits, green cards, and citizenship remain paused for individuals from the affected countries. Advocates say immigrants in areas including Orlando, North Carolina, and across Florida may face continued uncertainty as the policies take effect. In a statement to CBS News, DHS confirmed that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services "has lifted the adjudicative hold for thoroughly screened asylum seekers from non-high-risk countries. "This move allows resources to focus on continued rigorous national security and public safety vetting for higher-risk cases," DHS said, adding that the administration’s "maximum screening and vetting for ALL aliens continues unabated." The Trump administration in November halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports, seizing on the National Guard shooting in the nation’s capital to intensify efforts to rein in legal immigration. The suspect in the shooting near the White House that killed Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, both of the West Virginia National Guard, is facing charges, including first-degree murder. Investigators are seeking to find a motive for the attack.

DailySignal [3/30/2026 5:45 PM, Pedro Rodriguez, 474K] reports four House Republicans signed a petition to force a vote on a resolution to oppose President Donald Trump’s efforts to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants. Pressley introduced the resolution in response to the Trump administration’s move to end Haitian’s TPS status by executive order. A federal court, however, has prevented the executive order from taking effect. The petition will force a vote on her resolution directing the Department of Homeland Security to allow Haitian immigrants to qualify for TPS in the coming weeks. Salazar’s legislation, called the Dignity Act, would also give permanent legal status to Dreamers and DACA recipients.

FOX News [3/30/2026 2:51 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., took the stage at the ‘No Kings’ protest to criticize the Trump administration as Vice President JD Vance alleges the congresswoman committed immigration fraud. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

DailySignal [3/30/2026 6:00 PM, Virginia Grace McKinnon, 474K] reports Vice President JD Vance alleges that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., committed immigration fraud. She immigrated to the United States from Somalia in 1995 and was naturalized in 2000. Vance announced that the White House is now looking into what can be done to "get justice for the American people." Omar has been accused of fraud, on multiple accounts, since her first run for Minnesota House of Representatives in 2016. If Omar were to be found guilty of immigration fraud, she could face removal from congress and denaturalization, according to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services. Vance and Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, are investigating the Somali-born congresswoman, according to the vice president.

Daily Caller [3/30/2026 2:19 PM, Katelynn Richardson, 803K] reports the Supreme Court will hear a case Wednesday that could reshape what it means to be an American citizen. Birthright citizenship has been on a fast-track to the Supreme Court since President Donald Trump signed his day-one executive order ending guaranteed citizenship for children of illegal aliens or migrants on temporary visas, which quickly faced legal challenges. A June 2025 ruling on the Trump administration’s appeal of nationwide injunctions against the order offered some clues about how certain justices might approach the issue, though the Court did not rule on the EO’s merits. Rather, the majority held in United States v. CASA that "universal injunctions" district court judges had been using to stop the president’s policies from taking effect likely exceeded the authority granted to federal courts. Hours after the decision came down, left-wing groups filed new class action lawsuits on behalf of migrant babies who would be ineligible for citizenship under Trump’s order. The administration petitioned the justices to hear the case in September after lower courts found the order unconstitutional, and the justices agreed to take it up in December. FOX News [3/30/2026 1:50 PM, Kerri Kupec Urbahn, 37576K] reports that before the Court is whether the Trump executive order that ends birthright citizenship complies with the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, after multiple judges blocked the order from taking effect as it was litigated. In plain speak, the Court will look at whether someone born on U.S. soil automatically becomes a citizen irrespective of their parents’ status. Given that courts have routinely upheld birthright citizenship for over a century now, the Trump administration faces an uphill battle. However, the current Court has not shied away from overturning high-profile decisions: think Dobbs overturning Roe (abortion), and Loper overturning Chevron (the administrative state). The mere fact the Court decided to take up this issue at all is very interesting. As always, the devil will be in the details in terms of how broadly, or narrowly, they decide the case – or if they find some way to punt it altogether.

The Hill [3/30/2026 10:51 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 18170K] reports that President Trump on Monday ripped birthright citizenship ahead of Supreme Court arguments regarding his efforts to thwart the 14th Amendment later this week. “Birthright Citizenship is not about rich people from China, and the rest of the World, who want their children, and hundreds of thousands more, FOR PAY, to ridiculously become citizens of the United States of America. It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES!” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social. “We are the only Country in the World that dignifies this subject with even discussion. Look at the dates of this long ago legislation – THE EXACT END OF THE CIVIL WAR!” he added. Three years after the end of the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was ratified and concluded, “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.” It followed the 1858 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford, in which the Supreme Court argued that enslaved people were not citizens, despite their birth in U.S. states and territories. Trump and the Justice Department are challenging the birthright citizenship guarantees in the 14th Amendment, arguing that only the children of citizens and permanent legal residents are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S., not immigrants living in the country without legal permission or temporary visitors.

CNN [3/31/2026 4:27 AM, John Fritze, 19874K] reports in the 26 years since she fled Colombia for the United States, “Pilar” has received her working papers, graduated high school, established a career as a paralegal and purchased a home in Florida. But under the legal theory President Donald Trump is defending at the Supreme Court to end automatic birthright citizenship, the 35-year-old mother who asked to be identified as Pilar, is “temporarily present.” And if the 6-3 conservative court allows Trump’s executive order to take hold, her future children would effectively become stateless. When the Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday over Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order, the administration’s top appellate attorney is expected to focus on illegal immigration and “birth tourism.” What has received far less attention are the millions of people, like Pilar, who have lived in the country legally for years or even decades, but who would nevertheless be swept up by the policy. Some are permitted to live and work in the United States through humanitarian programs, such as the Obama-era DACA policy. Others have been waiting for years for the government to review asylum claims. By one estimate, if Trump’s order took effect, the children of as many as 6.5 million people who are living in the US legally could be denied citizenship. “I don’t have a paper that says I’m an American,” Pilar, whose child is part of the class action before the court, told CNN in an interview, “but this is all I know.” Pilar and others interviewed for this story sought anonymity because they fear repercussions from speaking out during a time when the Trump administration has cracked down on both illegal and legal immigration. The plaintiffs challenging the administration are also anonymous in court records. The name “Barbara” in Trump v. Barbara – the appeal now pending before the Supreme Court – is a pseudonym for a Honduran national seeking asylum.

Washington Post [3/31/2026 5:01 AM, Justin Jouvenal, 24826K] reports the husband cried after turning over the stick from the pregnancy test, showing his wife was pregnant with their second child after three years of trying. The couple hugged, burying their faces in each other’s shoulders. The mother was buoyant in that moment, which she recorded. She would finally get to use the girl’s name she had picked out nearly two decades earlier, when she was 17. Two weeks later, that joy turned to dread. The mother watched in shock as a TV newscaster announced that President Donald Trump, in one of the first acts of his second term, had signed an executive order denying citizenship to any child born to parents who lacked permanent immigration status. Suddenly, the woman and thousands of immigrants like her faced a prospect largely unheard of in a nation that had long granted citizenship to virtually every child born on its soil: Her daughter might not have a country to call home. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether Trump’s order violates the Constitution. Many legal scholars believe it does, but this court has shown a willingness to upend expectation and precedent. The woman — who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she fears her immigration status could be jeopardized by speaking out — was brought to the United States as a child by her mother, who was fleeing persecution in Colombia. Now 35, she eventually obtained temporary immigration status as one of the “dreamers” who came to the United States as kids. But she knew all too well what not being a citizen meant. She had watched her mother pray to be invisible to authorities. She had suffered through her family’s financial struggles. She was forced to put on hold a legal career she had dreamed about since childhood. In the shower that morning, she cried as she thought about her daughter. “I remember thinking [she’s] going to go through the same thing that I went through,” the woman said.

CNN [3/30/2026 11:50 AM, Joan Biskupic, 19874K] reports that as the Supreme Court considers the future of birthright citizenship, some advocates fighting President Donald Trump are speaking directly to conservative justices on how fundamental one’s faith can be to identity and citizenship. Several groups that have filed briefs in the case to be argued Wednesday refer to the moral imperative of welcoming strangers (with references to scripture) and call attention to the kind of practical dilemmas believers might face if the Trump administration restricted the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee that all children born in the US are citizens. They are addressing a Catholic court majority that has favored religious interests in disputes over education funding, Christian displays and various government policies. Many legal analysts across the ideological spectrum believe Trump’s ideas here are radical and bound to fail. But the high court has been receptive to other elements of Trump’s bold agenda, and immigrant-rights advocates and other challengers have brought forth a variety of arguments, including related to religion. Lawyers for Project Rousseau, which serves vulnerable young people, argues that the justices should consider children who are unable to prove their parenthood and citizenship. That would include some babies born to members of religious sects, such as the Amish and Mennonites, that shun formal birth documents. If the Trump administration prevails, Project Rousseau contends, such religious families would be forced "to decide between their Free Exercise rights and their birthright citizenship rights."

AP [3/30/2026 1:34 PM, Mark Sherman, 35287K] reports one of the first things an Argentine emigre did after her son was born in Florida last year was get him a U.S. passport. She saw the passport as tangible evidence that he’s an American. But now people like her are in a legal fight over President Donald Trump’s executive order that would deny U.S. citizenship to children born in the United States to people who are in the country illegally or temporarily. "It’s funny because I actually booked him for his passport application appointment even before he was born," the 28-year-old woman said, as her now 7-month-old son napped nearby. She spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, insisted upon by her lawyers, out of fear of possible retribution by the Republican administration if she were publicly identified. "I would say that I am definitely relieved that at least he is protected," she said. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Wednesday over whether Trump’s order, signed on Jan. 20, 2025, his first day back in office, comports with the post-Civil War 14th Amendment and an 86-year-old federal law that has been widely understood to make citizens of everyone born in the country, with narrow exceptions for the children of foreign diplomats and invading armies. Every court to have considered the issue has found the order to be illegal and prevented it from taking effect.

New York Times [3/31/2026 3:35 AM, Jeff Adelson and Amy Qin, 330K] reports that, in the Laredo metro area, on the Texas border, immigration screeched to a virtual standstill. El Centro, a metro that has historically served as a desert gateway into California, lost more people to other countries than it gained. In Denver and its suburbs, the net immigration rate fell by almost three-quarters. In the Chicago area, it was slashed by nearly two-thirds. Every metro area in the United States, in fact, experienced lower immigration rates during the year leading up to July 2025 compared with the previous year, according to new estimates released on Thursday by the Census Bureau. In about 75 percent of all counties, overall population growth — including immigration, domestic migration, births and deaths — either slowed or turned negative. Only 25 percent grew faster. And large urban counties and border counties, which had experienced a surge in new arrivals in recent years, were among the hardest-hit parts of the country. The new census estimates offer the most detailed picture yet of the demographic impacts from the immigration restrictions that started late in the Biden administration and have ramped up during the Trump presidency. The previous year brought record levels of immigration. The census attempts to account for both legal and illegal immigration, as well as deportations and voluntary departures. The numbers also captured the continuing effect of declining birthrates, as deaths outnumbered births in about two-thirds of U.S. counties. It is a sign that many communities are still struggling to keep their population levels up, even as the impact of Covid-related deaths has waned. The nation’s overall population still increased last year by 1.8 million people, but the combination of low birthrates and dramatically slowing immigration led to one of the slowest growth rates in U.S. history. The U.S. census numbers are a measure of the country’s demographic health, and take account of births and deaths as well as immigration, emigration and deportation. The country needs a population of young workers and taxpayers large enough to finance infrastructure like schools, hospitals and health care for older residents. Growth that is too rapid can also present problems, straining resources and pushing up the cost of housing. Some of the strongest population gains came in suburban counties, especially in the South, which continued to grow rapidly as they attracted people from other parts of the country. About 18,000 people moved into Pasco County, Fla., a suburban community about 30 miles outside Tampa, enough to increase its population by nearly 2.8 percent.

Washington Post [3/31/2026 5:01 AM, Maria Sacchetti, 24826K] reports the Department of Homeland Security permitted a Mexican woman to return Monday to the United States after a judge found her deportation was unlawful, a rare reprieve at a time when growing numbers of immigrants who arrived as children are being targeted for removal. A federal judge had ordered DHS to facilitate Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez’s return to the United States, after immigration officers deported her to Mexico even though she is actively enrolled in an Obama administration program that prohibits her removal because she arrived in the U.S. as a child. Stacy Tolchin, her immigration attorney, and Ivonne Rodriguez, an advocate, confirmed Estrada had returned to California. “This has been one of the most painful experiences of my life,” Estrada said after arriving in California. “I followed the rules. I trusted the system. And for that, I was ripped away from my daughter, Damaris, without warning. I’m home now — but what happened to me is wrong, and it should never happen to anyone.” Estrada, 42, is one of dozens, if not hundreds, of immigrants enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program who have been arrested and, in some cases, deported, since President Donald Trump started his second term. Former DHS secretary Kristi L. Noem, who was ousted this month, alleged that most had criminal histories and were therefore eligible for removal. But congressional Democrats say Trump is targeting a group that had cleared background checks and been promised to be shielded from deportation.

AP [3/30/2026 6:28 PM, Staff, 35287K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced today that it is implementing interim measures under the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) to address duty evasion by importers of Chinese golf carts, personal transportation vehicles, low-speed vehicles, and light utility vehicles (collectively, LSPTVs). CBP’s interim measures apply to many of the largest importers of Chinese LSPTVs, including ICON EV LLC, Denago EV Corporation, Marxon Energy Inc, HDK Plastic Factory, Ltd. (U.S.A.), Aero Import LLC, Tao Motor Inc, Transvolt Inc., Veloz Powersports Inc., No Speed Limit Inc., Baike Inc., Alltrack Trading Inc., and GoLabs Inc. These importers cover many of the largest U.S. brands of Chinese LSPTVs, including the Denago and Evolution brands. As part of its determination, CBP finds that there is reasonable suspicion that these companies are unlawfully evading payment of significant antidumping duties (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) through various evasion and circumvention schemes. As a result, CBP is implementing interim measures that will extend and suspend liquidation of unliquidated entries of LSPTVs entered by these companies. CBP will also reject entries made by these companies on or after December 30, 2025, and require them to refile those entries as subject to the AD/CVD duties. CBP will further require live entry of such imports going forward at the applicable AD/CVD rates.

Axios [3/30/2026 6:18 AM, Annalise Frank, 17364K] reports DPD Sgt. Denise Wallet and officer James Corsi were suspended in February for calling Customs and Border Protection for assistance during traffic stops, in apparent violation of DPD policy against coordinating with federal immigration officials. The two incidents led to the potential deportation of two people, per the Free Press. Police Chief Todd Bettison initially moved to fire the two officers, but was ultimately satisfied with the Board of Police Commissioners’ decision to suspend them without pay for 30 days, he said in a statement. Feb. 9: Sgt. Denise Wallet called Border Patrol when a person pulled over for a traffic stop couldn’t be identified. Border Patrol investigated, found the person "was not a U.S. citizen," and took them, the Freep quoted Bettison as saying. Bodycam videos of this interaction were leaked to YouTube, and DPD confirmed their authenticity. Dec. 16, 2025: Officer James Corsi, one of the two officers suspended, was investigating someone on a felony warrant and "believing that the individual was not a U.S. citizen, decided to contact Border Patrol," per Bettison. Wallet filed a lawsuit in federal court, challenging her suspension and arguing that she didn’t violate policy, according to court documents. The lawsuit says Wallet contacted Border Patrol "solely for the purpose of identifying the individual who was in custody, not to enforce immigration law or to inquire into the subject’s immigration status."

New York Times [3/30/2026 12:05 PM, J. David Goodman, 148038K] reports where the Rio Grande cuts steep cliffs through the arid West Texas mountains, dozens of spring break visitors on a canoe tour learned that the barren landscape in and around Big Bend National Park could soon feature a towering steel border wall. “There is no crisis on the border — only fun!” one river guide, Charlie Angell, told them. Another guide wore a hat reading “No al muro,” which translates to “No to the wall.” Nearby, a canoe inscribed with “No Wall” sat atop a pickup truck. Upriver, Mario Peña, 62, checked on his alfalfa and fed a pen of goats where the border wall was slated to be built. “For us, it’s the farming,” said Mr. Peña, a retired oil field worker. “Our parents, our grandparents, we did all this — just to let it go?” The national fight over immigration landed without warning last month in Texas’ Big Bend region, a remote stretch of inhospitable terrain that runs for hundreds of miles along the U.S.-Mexico border.

ABC News [3/30/2026 3:20 PM, Tesfaye Negussie, Sabina Ghebremedhin, and Ayesha Ali, 34146K] reports Transportation Security Administration officers received their first paychecks in more than a month on Monday, TSA workers told ABC News. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees TSA, told ABC News in a statement on Monday that most employees will receive at least two full paychecks for the past two pay periods. DHS also said there might be slight delays in some receiving their paychecks due to "financial institution processing times or issues with their direct deposit." It remains unclear if TSA employees will receive any pay going forward and there have been reports of some not getting paid if they called out. Payments came after President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Friday asking for DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to work with the Office of Management and Budget to use funds "that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations" to pay the agency’s workforce. The TSA employees will be paid through funds allocated by Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill signed last summer, according to a senior administration official. TSA officers told ABC News that they missed bill payments and got second jobs to pay ends meet. Union representatives described to ABC News stories of officers having to pull their children out of day care and, in some cases, getting eviction notices because they can’t pay their rent. Addressing reports from some TSA officers about missing portions of their paychecks, Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement to ABC, "We are working aggressively with USDA’s [United States Department of Agriculture] National Finance Center to complete processing for the half paycheck they are owed from pay period 3 as soon as possible." It is unclear what legal authority Trump issued Friday’s order under, and the White House hasn’t responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [3/30/2026 2:02 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 18170K]
(B) NBC News Daily [3/30/2026 3:06 PM, Staff]

Federal News Network [3/30/2026 5:36 PM, Justin Doubleday, 1297K] reports while most TSA employees should have received at least partial backpay on Monday, thousands more DHS employees continue to work without pay. Transportation Security Administration employees are getting paid for the first time since the partial government shutdown began in mid-February. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed "most" TSA employees received a retroactive paycheck featuring "at least two full paychecks" covering missed pay periods during the DHS shutdown that began Feb. 14. "A small population might see a slight delay due to a variety of reasons, including financial institution processing times or issues with their direct deposit," DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. Bis added that DHS is "working aggressively" with the Agriculture Department’s National Finance Center to process the half paycheck that TSA employees missed out on from the first week of the shutdown. On Friday, as airport screening delays piled up and a Senate-passed funding deal faltered in the House, Trump directed DHS to pay TSA officers using money from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The bill didn’t provide money for TSA or airport screening, but Trump directed DHS to "use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations" for the paychecks. The Senate is now out on a two-week recess, meaning thousands more civilian employees across DHS will continue working unpaid for the foreseeable future. The Trump administration has used funding from the reconciliation bill to finance paychecks for law enforcement officers and Coast Guard service members since the start of the shutdown. More than 500 TSA officers have quit during the recent shutdown. Thomas said that TSA officers who called out also have "disciplinary actions looming over their heads." Both union officials and TSA leaders are concerned about attrition at TSA. The agency also lost approximately 1,100 employees during last fall’s shutdown.

Bloomberg [3/30/2026 5:10 PM, Aashna Shah, 18082K] reports airport wait times in Houston and Atlanta have eased after Transportation Security Administration officers received most of their missed pay. At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, where wait times exceeded four hours last week, passengers were expected to move through security within 10 minutes, according to the airport’s website. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson international airport is advising passengers to arrive two hours before their flight time, which is in line with typical guidance. The longest wait time at TSA checkpoints at the airport was about four minutes as of 2 p.m. Eastern Time, the website said. And at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, travelers can expect to wait under an hour for general security screenings while those with TSA PreCheck breeze through in less than 30 minutes, according to the airport’s website as of about 2 p.m. Grace Uvezian, 32, a vice president of marketing at Appetronix, got to JFK multiple hours ahead of her 1:30 p.m. flight after recent reports of long lines. She was greeted by an empty terminal and made her way through security in under 10 minutes — with four hours to spare until her takeoff to Sarasota, Florida. “I don’t mind sitting and just doing my work in the airport,” Uvezian said. “It’s better to have no line than to be waiting for three to four hours.” Earlier this month, the longest TSA lines in history stretched for hours at many US airports, forcing flyers to miss their flights and consider other options like taking the train or renting private jets to get to their destinations. The lengthy waits were a result of a Department of Homeland Security funding stalemate in Washington that continues to drag on amid disputes over immigration enforcement policy. TSA agents had stopped getting paid because of the partial shutdown, prompting many to quit or call out from work. Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said that more than 500 officers left the TSA over the course of the shutdown and that thousands had called out.

Wall Street Journal [3/30/2026 6:21 PM, Allison Pohle and Dean Seal, 646K] reports Transportation Security Administration officers are getting paid again. After more than five weeks of working without pay due to a funding impasse, most TSA employees received two, full retroactive paychecks on Monday, according to union officials and a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman. The spokeswoman said the department is working to complete processing for the remaining half-paycheck owed. Payments resumed Monday after President Trump late last week directed federal officials to pay TSA workers through an executive order. Over the past month, travelers have endured hourslong waits at airports in Houston, Atlanta, New York and elsewhere as TSA officers called out from work. Union officials have said many are working side jobs to cover bills. Wait times at TSA checkpoints eased in some major airports around the country on Monday, according to TSA data, though estimated times for some security lines, including at Houston airports, continued to stretch past an hour throughout the day. Absences continued at airports through the weekend, according to DHS. Nearly 10.6% of TSA officers called out on Sunday, down from a peak of about 12.4% on Friday. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was Sunday’s most affected airport, where more than 38% of officers called out, DHS said. More than a third of officers called out at airports in Houston, New Orleans and Atlanta. Trump’s executive order covers back pay for the officers—paychecks missed since funding for DHS lapsed on Feb. 14. The order directed administration officials to use federal funds relating to TSA operations in order to pay security officers. Congress still hasn’t reached a deal to fund the department and is on its two-week recess.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [3/30/2026 3:03 PM, Josh Christenson, 40934K]

New York Times [3/30/2026 4:42 PM, Madeleine Ngo, 148038K] reports most of the Transportation Security Administration’s 60,000 workers began receiving back pay on Monday, easing the financial strain that has troubled them since the partial government shutdown began more than six weeks ago. But with the shutdown persisting, the workers don’t know when they’ll be paid next. Although security lines at some airports appeared to be easing on Monday, the respite from the chaos may prove temporary if workers aren’t paid again in two weeks. A memo that President Trump signed on Friday ordering the Department of Homeland Security to pay T.S.A. officers did not specify whether they would be paid on a regular schedule. Instead, it directed the department to “provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them if not for the Democrat-led DHS shutdown.” Asked whether T.S.A. officers would be receiving future paychecks, Lauren Bis, a department spokeswoman, referred to the question to the Office of Management and Budget. Ms. Bis said most employees had been sent back pay that covered two full paychecks, though workers were still owed another week’s pay. She said in a statement that the department was “working aggressively” to resolve the issue. While federal workers are legally required to receive back pay at the end of a shutdown, such periods still present hardships: They may incur financial penalties for not being able to pay bills on time, or have to pay interest if they rely on credit cards to pay expenses. The Department of Homeland Security’s funding lapse, which began on Feb. 14, still has no end in sight. A Senate-passed measure to fund most of the department except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol was rebuked by House Republicans on Friday, and Senate Republicans declined to push through an eight-week extension of funding during a brief ceremonial session on Monday. Congress is in the midst of what is expected to be a two-week recess, diminishing the likelihood of a deal anytime soon.

New York Times [3/30/2026 5:02 PM, Christine Chung, 148038K] reports passengers expecting a repeat of last week’s airport misery generally found far shorter security lines on Monday as Transportation Security Administration officers began to receive some back pay under an order President Trump signed on Friday. Security waits were 15 minutes and under at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, and were up to about 40 minutes at Kennedy Airport in New York as of Monday afternoon. Just days ago at these hubs, nightmarish lines zigzagged across the terminal and even stretched outside it, causing major anxiety for travelers on spring break and leading Atlanta and all three major New York airports to pause their real-time wait trackers. All of those trackers were operating on Monday. But with no guarantee about future paychecks, and the partial government shutdown unresolved, the long lines could return. On Monday morning at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, in Maryland, Adam Coleman and Lynn Desrosiers were relieved to find no wait at the Southwest check-in kiosk. They had heard from friends about the weekend chaos at that airport and arrived with their two children more than four hours before their 4:30 p.m. flight to Orlando, Fla. “We were running out the door to get here,” said Ms. Desrosiers, 45, as she looked around at the open kiosks and handful of travelers at security checkpoints. “Looks like we’re going to spend a lot of money on candy, maybe take a few naps.”

FOX News [3/30/2026 4:00 PM, Peter Pinedo, Brooke Taylor, 37576K] reports emergency security lanes at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, one of the airports that were most affected by the ongoing partial government shutdown, were seen being cleared by staff on Monday after President Donald Trump signed an executive order over the weekend to pay Transportation Security Administration officers. Though complications from hundreds of TSA agents quitting, and even more calling out of work, are likely to continue, the effects of the resumed paychecks could be seen almost immediately. At Bush, where wait times were more than four hours and lines stretched out of terminal doors and into underground subway tunnels, the emergency appears to finally be over. Current security wait times listed on the airport’s website are five and nine minutes. Disagreements in Congress over immigration enforcement have resulted in the Department of Homeland Security experiencing a lapse in funding. Democrats have made renewed funding for the department contingent on a set of reforms, including changes in enforcement tactics by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Calling the situation an "emergency," Trump warned that mounting disruptions at airports have pushed the system to a breaking point. On Friday, Trump signed an executive order directing federal officials to ensure that TSA employees receive pay during the DHS shutdown. TSA agents finally began receiving paychecks on Monday after 42 days without pay, though the department remains unfunded as debates continue to roil in Congress. TSA agents speaking with Fox News on Monday shared that they had received a paycheck Monday morning but that it was only half of what they were owed. Officers expressed that the TSA workforce remains very frustrated and worried about making ends meet with delayed pay and continued uncertainty. According to DHS, 3,101 TSA officers, at a rate of 10.59 percent of the force, called out of work on Sunday.

CNN [3/30/2026 3:05 PM, Holly Yan, Tami Luhby, and Chris Youd, 19874K] reports abysmal wait times at airports started to ease Monday morning as tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers began receiving back pay after more than a month without a paycheck. Some TSA employees started seeing part of their overdue income hit their bank accounts Monday morning. Two TSA workers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport told CNN they each received two full paychecks they missed in March due to the partial government shutdown. But they are still waiting for a partial paycheck from the end of February. It’s not clear when TSA employees will get all the back pay they’re owed. CNN has reached out to TSA and DHS for comment. About 61,000 TSA employees have been working without pay since a partial government shutdown started February 14. Those workers have missed more than $1 billion in pay, forcing some to max out their credit cards and making it difficult for many to afford food, gas, housing, child care and other needs. Even with long-delayed back pay, the TSA workforce will not be the same. About 500 workers have quit since the partial government shutdown started. But the number of TSA officers calling out from work has improved in recent days. After 3,450 workers didn’t show up to work Thursday and 3,560 called out on Friday, the number dropped to about 2,800 Saturday, according to DHS data. While TSA workers return, it’s not clear when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will leave airports. ICE agents were deployed to help address staffing shortages as spring travelers faced hourslong waits at some major hubs. Over the weekend, border czar Tom Homan told CNN, "we’ll see" whether ICE starts leaving airports after TSA agents receive pay.

AP [3/30/2026 11:53 PM, Rio Yamat, Josh Funk and John Seewer, 34146K] reports frustrating security lines dwindled at U.S. airports Monday, clearing the worst bottlenecks as Transportation Safety Administration officers began receiving backpay for working during the government shutdown. Checkpoint lines that at times stretched to four hours at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport shrank to waits of 10 minutes or less on Monday. In other previous trouble spots such as Atlanta and Baltimore-Washington International Airport, travelers were moving smoothly to their flights. After weeks of airport chaos, there was finally optimism for the beleaguered aviation system. Weary travelers hope the overdue paychecks will end the seemingly endless security lines and missed flights many experienced. It remains unknown how long federal immigration officers will maintain a visible presence in airport terminals as the busy spring break travel season continues. TSA workers told union leadership Monday that they received some — but not all — of their back pay, according to Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the TSA chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees. He said the rest is expected by next week. Some employees also reported incorrect backpay amounts, including missing overtime, the union said. Jones, who is also a TSA agent at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, said one colleague told him he was already “back to zero” after covering his car and housing payments and late fees. Workers are relieved the money has arrived, but with the shutdown still unresolved, he said, they worry it won’t provide lasting relief. “None of my colleagues feel like they’ve been made whole,” Jones said. “Their finances are destroyed.” The union said the TSA updated its furlough policy on Sunday, removing guidance that allowed officers to request a furlough if they could not report to work for reasons tied to the shutdown, such as lack of transportation or child care. “Working without pay forced more than 500 officers to leave TSA and thousands were forced to call out,” acting TSA Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in announcing the delayed payday. The union agreed with these numbers, but said those who could not afford to report for duty now “have disciplinary actions looming over their heads.” “Backpay alone does not fix those problems,” the union said. The AP emailed TSA and DHS seeking comment and additional details on the agency’s furlough guidance. The DHS shutdown resulted in not only travel delays but also warnings of airport closures as TSA workers who were only just recovering financially from last fall’s extended government shutdown stopped going to work. TSA employees had gone without pay since DHS funding lapsed in February.

CBS News [3/30/2026 11:21 PM, Marvin Hurst, 51110K] reports Transportation Security Administration Officers began receiving their paychecks, which were not funded during an ongoing partial government shutdown. President Trump ordered the employees to receive the money. Even so, the celebration is limited after going without pay for 45 days during this shutdown. "For the last five months, TSA officers went to work for three months without pay. Think about that," Johnny Jones said. "As the average watcher, imagine trying to manage your daily finances with three of the last five months getting paid twice.". Jones is the president of Local 1040 of the American Federation of Government Employees and secretary/treasurer of the TSA Council 100. He said he represents nearly 50,000 members nationwide. 510 TSA officers left their jobs during the partial closure, while lawmakers try to reach an agreement on ICE reform. Jones blames that impasse for kicking the financial stability of TSA officers like a football. Because the officers are essential workers, they are required to come to work at their own expense until the government reopens or an emergency order from the president sends funding their way. "Myself, I’ve been a TSA officer for 24 years. I’m not going to let a nail that hit my tire stop my road trip. Unfortunately, I have to stop on the side of the road and change the tire or fix it," he said. To cover expenses, Jones said his members incurred due to the lack of enactment on Capitol Hill. According to Jones, an employee has nearly $2,000 in late fees from her apartment complex. So, the backpay, 160 hours per CBS News, and a forthcoming partial payment are applied to the debt. He said the $10,000 bonuses would not be like those handed out by former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to TSA officers for going above and beyond in November at the end of the previous government shutdown. This money, if considered by the same lawmakers who have paid TSA in more than 40 days, would cover late fees, overdrafts, and even mental anguish. In the meantime, Jones is delivering food to officers who need it and trying to get employees who quit to return, despite the political showdowns that have led to government shutdowns. "Pick up the phone, call your manager, call the person you resigned to, and tell them you’d like your job back. I’m actually pushing management to do the same," he said. There are no victory laps because other employees still don’t have a check. According to CBS News, employees from the Coast Guard, FEMA, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency are still unpaid until lawmakers or the president act. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [3/30/2026 6:00 PM, Nicole Sganga, Kris Van Cleave, 51110K] reports the shortage of TSA officers is still slowing security lines at major airports, where staffing shortages are more severe than the national average, but wait times seemed to be stabilizing Monday. TSA officers were calling out absent at elevated rates Sunday, even as there were signs that part of their back pay over the 45-day partial shutdown was beginning to reach their bank accounts. Although Congress has failed to reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security and lawmakers have left town Friday for a two-week recess, President Trump signed an executive order directing the DHS secretary to pay TSA workers during the shutdown. Nationwide, the call-out rate stood at 10.6%, or 3,101 officers Sunday, down from a peak of 12.4% on March 27. Even so, the figure remains well above typical levels, which generally fall in the low single digits — around 2% — underscoring continued strain on airport screening operations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were sent to assist TSA at BWI Airport and other airports over the weekend, and White House border czar Tom Homan told CBS News "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that officers would be in place until the airports "feel like they’re 100%." CBS News obtained a notice sent to TSA workers indicating that they have received pay for 160 hours, covering the period from Feb. 22 to March 21. They’re still missing pay for Feb. 14-21, and it’s also not yet clear whether they’ve been paid for overtime hours worked during the shutdown. DHS officials said some paychecks began to be deposited in workers’ accounts as early as Monday, with other workers expected to receive payments Tuesday. The department’s goal is to have most workers paid by close of business Tuesday, with an outside deadline of Wednesday, April 1, when a number of bills tend to be due. The president’s executive order only covers pay for TSA workers. ICE agents have continued to be paid because Congress provided funding for them in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but tens of thousands of DHS workers are continuing to work without pay, among them, Coast Guard, FEMA and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency employees.

The Hill [3/30/2026 5:37 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 18170K] reports Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers started getting retroactive paychecks Monday for the weeks they have worked without pay during the partial 44-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). House Republicans on Friday rejected a bipartisan Senate deal to reopen much of the DHS, including the TSA, leaving the department unfunded as lawmakers left Washington for a two-week Easter recess. But President Trump’s executive order, which he signed Friday, tapped into a different source of funding to pay TSA officers — a move aimed at easing hours-long security wait times and encouraging Transportation Security officers, to show up to work, as callout rates topped 12 percent Friday. Most TSA officers began getting paid Monday for pay periods 4 and 5 — the most recent stretches of time interrupted by the shutdown — but officials cautioned that government workers might see some delays in receiving full back pay. The DHS shutdown, which started Feb. 14, began in the middle of the third pay period, and Bis said DHS is “working aggressively” with the relevant financial institutions “to complete processing for the half paycheck they are owed from pay period 3 as soon as possible.” Bis said some TSA employees “might see a slight delay” for reasons including “financial institution processing times or issues with their direct deposit.” White House border czar Tom Homan, who’s been tasked with overseeing the ICE deployment at airports, said Sunday that ICE officers will remain at airports to support the strained TSA workforce until the immigration officers are no longer needed. Homan noted many TSA officers have either quit entirely or have stopped showing up to work, opting instead to take on second jobs to make their monthly payments. He said those officers won’t return overnight — even after Trump signed the executive order directing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA officers.

FOX News [3/30/2026 1:34 PM, Ashley J. DiMella , 37576K] reports airports are still recovering from the fallout of the DHS shutdown that resulted in a shortage of transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers — and some are now changing their advisory messages to travelers. John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Ohio is cautioning passengers to arrive just 1.5 hours before their flights depart. "Early morning travel PSA, 90 minutes before departure is the sweet spot," the airport posted on X on Thursday. "Showing up too early creates those first-wave lines," the post also said. "Even when lines stretch to ticketing, waits are usually [about] 45 mins." Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas wrote on X it’s expecting over 30,000 travelers to be processed by TSA on Monday. "There is no need to line up more than 4 hours before your flight, as this causes congestion in the lines for those flying out sooner," the airport wrote. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is still advising passengers to arrive at least 4 hours early.

FOX News [3/30/2026 6:08 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says callouts are rising during the DHS shutdown, with delays worsening at major hubs and creating unpredictable travel disruptions nationwide.

ABC News [3/30/2026 4:17 PM, Mason Leib, 34146K] reports with Transportation Security Administration employees across the country expected to receive their first full paycheck in over 40 days on Monday, travelers across the country are keeping a keen eye on security lines at some of the nation’s largest travel hubs. Security wait times have skyrocketed in recent weeks, as TSA staffing levels dwindled due to officer callouts amid the ongoing partial government shutdown, resulting in hourslong waits in some places. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a presidential memorandum ordering the Department of Homeland Security to begin issuing paychecks to TSA employees, who have gone without pay for weeks, directing DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to work with the Office of Management and Budget to tap into funds "that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations" to carry out the directive. As TSA employees start to see some back pay on Monday, the impact on security line wait times remains to be seen. While some airports are still reporting extended wait times, others appear to be moving efficiently. Congress is still at a stalemate over legislation to fund DHS, TSA’s parent agency. In the meantime, following Trump’s presidential memorandum on Friday, TSA employees will start to see paychecks hitting their bank accounts again on Monday, March 30. These paychecks are expected to cover some of the back pay owed to TSA workers, who have been working without pay since the partial shutdown began back in February. Despite the directive, TSA callout rates continued to track around 10% over the weekend, with 2,890 TSA officers calling out nationwide on Saturday, March 28. More than 500 TSA officers have left the agency since the shutdown began on Feb. 14, according to DHS. Questions remain as to how exactly the TSA payments will affect staffing, and thus airport security lines moving forward.

New York Post [3/30/2026 2:44 PM, Chris Nesi, 40934K] reports cash-strapped Transportation Security Administration workers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport who were given $1,000 gift cards by filmmaker Tyler Perry are reportedly being told to return the generous gifts, according to a local report. TSA agents haven’t been paid in six weeks as part of the longest partial government shutdown of all time, and many of them have been struggling to make ends meet. Some workers began getting paychecks on Monday thanks to an executive order by President Trump — but the agency still hasn’t been funded by Congress. Looking to ease their burden, Perry reportedly initially went to the airport, the busiest in the world, to hand out cash to the workers, but was told federal rules prohibit them from accepting cash gifts. As a workaround, Perry’s reps said he worked through management, human resources and legal channels before returning to the airport and handing out gift cards instead.

USA Today [3/30/2026 1:31 PM, Irene Wright, 70643K] reports it has been a week since Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were deployed to some of the busiest airports in the country, and now that things appear to be trending toward normal, passengers may be wondering how long ICE is going to stay. ICE officers, and other officers with DHS, appeared near the record-breaking lines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport early on March 23, and throughout the week they started to take on more responsibility. At first, they stood around and watched as the lines stayed long and airport employees did most of the heavy lifting, but soon they started to man the TSA checkpoints and eventually moved inside the airport, past security. The lines got shorter, though there are still peak times during the day when the wait times for TSA start to grow, and travelers were able to get to their flights in a reasonable amount of time. The TSA line took about 2 and a half hours to get through Friday morning around 6 a.m., down from a nearly 6-hour wait time on Monday morning around the same time. The lines are even shorter the beginning of this week. Border Czar Tom Homan said even though TSA workers will be earning paychecks, ICE still has a role to play in the nation’s airports. "I’m working very closely with the TSA administrator and the ICE director to decide what airport needs what, but you know, God bless men and women of ICE," Homan said during an appearance on CNN’s "State of the Union" on March 29. "They’re plugging those holes, they’re keeping the security at the airport at a high level.".

Newsweek [3/30/2026 6:42 AM, Kate Plummer, 52220K] reports audio of the pilot speaking on the Frontier Airlines flight where a passenger made an alleged bomb threat has emerged, according to a report. A passenger allegedly made an verbal bomb threat on a Frontier Airlines flight traveling from Columbus, Ohio, to Atlanta on Sunday, as the plane was preparing to land. The airport was evacuated and the plane was isolated for investigation. Authorities said the threat was not credible, but the incident is being investigated by authorities, according to multiple reports. "As a matter of precaution and in coordination with local authorities, the aircraft parked at a remote location while law enforcement responded," a Frontier spokesperson told USA Today, adding that the threat was deemed non-credible. Newsweek reached out to Frontier Airlines, the Atlanta Police Department and the FBI by email on this story outside of normal business hours for comment.

Houston Chronicle [3/30/2026 6:07 PM, Michael Garcia, 2493K] reports TSA PreCheck and CLEAR+, which help customers get through airport security faster, were still not open Monday at Houston’s Bush Airport as TSA agents started to get paid and lines recovered from the staffing shortage. Both services have been unavailable at Bush Airport since last week. Houston Airport System officials reiterated that both remained closed on Monday afternoon and did not provide information on when they may open. PreCheck was open at Hobby Airport Monday, according to the HAS website. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to pay TSA workers, and most received backpay covering two pay periods on Monday, said Lauren Bis, assistant secretary for public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security. Federal officials were working to finish processing an additional half paycheck for an earlier pay period "as soon as possible," she said.

FOX News [3/30/2026 11:10 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports that Emergency TSA lanes at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental were seen being cleared by staff after President Donald Trump took action to get agents paid. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC News [3/30/2026 8:35 PM, Alex Stone, 34146K] reports a 30-year-old U.S. Marine could face charges after authorities accused him of having a live 25mm explosive round in his checked luggage Monday afternoon at Palm Springs International Airport in California. Palm Springs police told ABC News that servicemember -- identified as Ryan Weaver, of Henderson, Texas -- had the explosive round in his checked luggage. Transportation Security Administration officers discovered it and called law enforcement. Police said Weaver told officers he found the device in the field a year ago and kept it. He allegedly thought it was inert. It was rusty and corroded, and the original paint markings were no longer visible on the round, according to police. Officials said it was difficult to determine whether it was an inert training device or a live "high explosive device.". The Riverside County Explosive Ordnance Disposal team responded and examined it using X-ray technology. Officials said it was clear at that point that it was a live round. The bomb squad moved it to a desert area, where it was detonated, according to police. Weaver was detained but later released to military authorities, Palm Springs police said. The case will be submitted to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office for possible charges of possessing a destructive device. Police say he could also face administrative action by the Marine Corps and possible civil penalties from the federal government. ABC News has reached out to TSA for a comment.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [3/30/2026 11:58 PM, Staff, 2238K]

Bloomberg [3/30/2026 5:47 PM, Myles Miller, 18082K] reports a Federal Emergency Management Agency contractor installed with backing from a key Trump ally is under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general over her role in approving contracts and influencing disaster funding decisions typically reserved for government officials, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry is examining whether Kara Voorhies, who was brought into FEMA during former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s tenure, had authority over contracting and spending decisions beyond her role, the people said. Officials said Lewandowski, a longtime political adviser to President Trump who served as a special government employee at DHS, pushed for Voorhies to be embedded at FEMA as part of a broader effort to centralize control over spending and operations. The inquiry follows concerns raised by a former FEMA official who later joined the inspector general’s office and had prior knowledge of Voorhies’s activities, the people said. Investigators recently entered FEMA headquarters and removed materials from her office. Voorhies is no longer employed by the agency, according to a court filing. Inside FEMA, current and former officials said Voorhies’s role expanded beyond financial advising into acting as a conduit between the agency and DHS headquarters, with instructions that key communications and spending decisions be routed through her, including during active disaster response operations.

New York Post [3/31/2026 1:23 AM, Victor Nava, 40934K] reports the Secret Service agent who accidentally fired his gun while guarding former first lady Jill Biden last week shot himself in the buttocks, according to a report. The agent’s non-life-threatening injury following the "negligent discharge" at Philadelphia International Airport was initially described as a leg wound by the Secret Service. "When he tried to holster his gun, he shot himself – yes, right in the butt cheek," RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree wrote on X. Asked about Crabtree’s reporting, a Secret Service spokesman told The Post: "It is accurate that the agent suffered an unintentional, self-inflicted gunshot wound to his hip area.". The spokesman noted that an additional claim reported by Crabtree – that the agent was using a flashlight on his firearm to search for a misplaced cell phone – was "not what was reported to us from the scene.". Philadelphia police told CBS Philadelphia that the gun went off while the agent was in an unmarked Chevrolet SUV. Biden was not present at the time of the incident, which did not impact the former first lady’s movements, the agency said last Friday. No other injuries were reported. The incident is being investigated by the Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility. The Secret Service declined to comment on the specifics of the probe, fearing it "could compromise future interviews.".

CBS News [3/30/2026 6:49 AM, Stephen Smith, 51110K] reports fighter jets were scrambled and deployed flares over Palm Beach Sunday after a civilian plane breached restricted airspace near President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, U.S. military officials said. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed that F-16 fighter jets intercepted an aircraft that entered a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) zone at about 1:15 p.m. That restriction is typically imposed when the president is in the area. Mr. Trump was at his West Palm Beach golf club at the time of the breach, according to White House pool reporters. Air Force One remained secure on the tarmac at the Palm Beach airport throughout the incident. While NORAD has reported dozens of similar incidents in the area in recent months, Sunday’s intercept gained traction online after a video from a Delta Airlines flight began circulating on social media, CBS affiliate WPEC reported. In the video, a pilot is heard informing passengers of a ground stop due to a potential security breach. "They’re not sure what it was, but apparently there was a drone that came in too close to the airport," the pilot is heard saying over the intercom. "They had to scramble some helicopters to go and investigate that.". However, NORAD later confirmed the security breach was the civilian aircraft.

New York Times [3/30/2026 8:37 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Anton Troianovski and Maria Abi-Habib, 148038K] reports the United States on Monday signaled that it was softening on what has become an effective oil blockade on Cuba, an about-face after President Trump spent weeks threatening to take over the island and saying he would punish nations that shipped fuel there. Speaking to reporters, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the United States would evaluate oil shipments to Cuba on a “case-by-case basis.” She was responding to questions about why the U.S. Coast Guard allowed a Russian tanker full of crude to reach Cuba, even though it has been blocking other countries from doing the same. “It will continue to be made on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian reasons or otherwise, but there’s been no firm change in our sanctions policy,” Ms. Leavitt said. The Trump administration has blocked energy shipments to Cuba since January as part of a strategy to force the Communist government into submission. Mr. Trump said in a January social media post: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA — ZERO!” But when it came to an oil tanker from Russia, Mr. Trump — who has long expressed admiration for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — made an exception. For Russia, Mr. Trump’s decision to let the ship through came as the latest demonstration that it has some leverage over Washington. Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, said the fuel shipment had been discussed in advance with the United States and that Russia had ⁠a duty to support “friends” in Cuba. The U.S. decision to let the ship through came just days after Mr. Trump eased oil sanctions on Russia and Iran in a bid to contain soaring energy prices prompted by the war with Iran. Moscow, however, has only continued to challenge Mr. Trump’s global ambitions. In Ukraine, Russia has spurned Mr. Trump’s push for a cease-fire, despite more than a year of negotiations. And in the Middle East, Russia has supplied intelligence showing the locations of U.S. military personnel, American officials have said.

CyberScoop [3/30/2026 2:05 PM, Derek B. Johnson, 122K] reports a new malware-based credential-stealing campaign, which researchers are calling “DeepLoad,” has been infecting enterprise business IT environments over the past In a report released Monday, ReliaQuest AI researchers Thassanai McCabe and Andrew Currie say the most relevant feature of this attack is the way it uses artificial intelligence and other engineering “to defeat the controls most organizations rely on, turning one user action into persistent, credential-stealing access.” DeepLoad is delivered to victims via “QuickFix” social-engineering techniques, such as fake browser prompts or error pages. If the user falls for the scheme, the malware developers — or more likely their AI tools — put a lot of work into building evasion of security technology “at every stage” of the attack chain. The loader “buries functional code under thousands of meaningless variable assignments,” and the payload runs behind a Windows lock screen process that is “overlooked by security tools” monitoring for threats. ReliaQuest said “the sheer volume” of code padding likely rules out human-only involvement. “We assess with high confidence that AI was used to build this obfuscation layer,” McCabe and Currie write. “If so, organizations should expect frequent updates to the malware and less time to adapt detection coverage between waves.”

ABC News [3/31/2026 5:05 AM, Nathan Lee, 34146K] reports caught in the crossfire of stalled negotiations for funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the country’s main defender against cyberattacks has taken a hit. Now more than 40 days without funding, Senate appropriations leaders say around 60% of current employees for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) -- the front line for U.S. cyberspace and critical infrastructure -- have been furloughed. This forced the agency to cancel physical and digital assessments to detect vulnerabilities of the nation’s critical infrastructure, according to the same Senate appropriations release. As strikes continue across Iran, some experts worry America’s digital shields are down while the country faces a known player in global cyber warfare. While President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the TSA to resume paychecks, other agencies like CISA still lack allocated budgets. Senate Republican and Democratic leaders continue to warn of Iranian cyberattacks as the conflict with the U.S. and Israel develops, but there’s still no clear or quick path ahead, leaving some experts concerned.

New York Times [3/30/2026 7:56 PM, Jacey Fortin, 148038K] reports the man who rammed his truck into a Michigan synagogue and killed himself during a firefight with security guards this month was “motivated and inspired by Hezbollah’s militant ideology,” federal officials said on Monday. The attack was “purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan,” Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I. office in Detroit, said at a news conference. Officials described the attack as a clear indication of rising antisemitism. The attacker, identified by federal officials as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalized United States citizen born in Lebanon, sat in his vehicle outside the synagogue, Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, for about two hours before driving into the building. During that time, Special Agent Runyan said, the attacker sent 19 messages, including videos and photos, to his sister, who they believe was in Lebanon. The messages expressed his intent to commit a terrorist attack, she said, and included references to martyrdom and descriptions of his plan to target what he appeared to consider the largest gathering of Jews in Michigan. In one video sent just minutes before the attack, Special Agent Runyan said, the attacker recorded himself saying in Arabic, “I will kill as many of them as I possibly can.” Those messages “affirmed” the attacker’s Hezbollah-inspired ideology, she said. Hezbollah, an Iranian-supported militant group in Lebanon, has been designated by the United States as a terror organization, but it is also an established political party in Lebanon with support particularly among Shiite Lebanese. Officials have said that several days before the attack, four of Mr. Ghazali’s relatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon as part of the U.S.-Israeli war in the Middle East. Israel has said that one of the relatives, a brother, was a Hezbollah commander. Special Agent Runyan said that the F.B.I. had not been able to determine whether the attacker was a member of Hezbollah, adding that he had never been the subject of an F.B.I. investigation.

Reported similarly:
AP [3/30/2026 6:35 PM, Corey Williams]
Reuters [3/30/2026 5:58 PM, Jasper Ward, 38315K]
ABC News [3/30/2026 3:51 PM, Emily Shapiro and Luke Barr, 34146K] r
ABC News [3/30/2026 7:54 PM, Staff, 34146K] Video: HERE
CBS News [3/30/2026 3:15 PM, Staff, 51110K]
NBC News [3/30/2026 6:24 PM, Phil Helsel, 42967K]
CNN [3/30/2026 6:26 PM, Cindy Von Quednow, Holmes Lybrand, 19874K]

FOX News [3/30/2026 11:54 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports L.A. Mom Magazine founder Shirin Yadegar and former deputy national security advisor Steve Yates discuss FBI officials reporting that the suspect in the Michigan synagogue attack was inspired by Hezbollah on ‘Fox News @ Night.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [3/30/2026 7:26 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on escalating tensions between the US and Iran after President Donald Trump signaled possible action against Iran on ‘Special Report.’

Politico [3/30/2026 3:08 PM, Eli Stokols and Megan Messerly, 21784K] reports President Donald Trump is allowing a Russian oil tanker to reach Cuba for “humanitarian reasons,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, insisting that it did not amount to a shift in U.S. policy. The U.S. has enforced a blockade around Cuba since January in an effort to increase pressure on the country’s government, going as far as to threaten others that attempt to send fuel there and even escorting away a tanker on approach to the island. But when asked on Monday what was different about this Russian tanker, Leavitt said that decisions “are being made on a case-by-case basis” and insisted that “there has not been a formal change in sanction policy.” This particular tanker, which is owned by the Russian government and estimated to be carrying around 730,000 barrels of crude oil, was allowed through, Leavitt added, “in order to provide humanitarian needs to the Cuban people.” Cuba’s energy grid has all but collapsed since the blockade began. Trump and aides have been outspoken about their desire to see Cuba’s communist government fall. Allowing the Russian tanker through the blockade would seem to undercut that endeavor. “It’s huge,” Lawrence Gumbiner, who led the U.S. Embassy in Havana during Trump’s first term, said of the oil delivery, estimating that it buys the country “a month or two” of energy and reduces the pressure on Cuba to make a deal with the U.S. — even as Trump insists the country is on the verge of collapse. “It’s not that they have the wind at their sails,” he added, speaking about the Cuban government, “but they feel like this is giving them a little bit of breathing room that they believe will help them develop the next steps to stay in power.” The oil tanker’s arrival at the Cuban port of Matanzas comes after weeks of speculation about how the U.S. would respond once the ship entered the Caribbean. After leaving Russia earlier this month, the Anatoly Kolodkin made a show as it transited the English Channel escorted by a Russian warship before steaming solo across the Atlantic. People close to the White House, former diplomats and Russia observers framed the Kolodkin’s apparent mission — delivering much-needed oil to Cuba as blackouts roil the country — as secondary to its geopolitical goal of testing how far the U.S. is willing to go in defense of the Western Hemisphere, under the president’s so-called Donroe Doctrine. Those people had anticipated that the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard would likely intercept the Kolodkin before it reached port, as the vessel itself is sanctioned and also the U.S. has an ongoing oil blockade in Cuba. That it didn’t, they said, suggests either that talks between the U.S. and Cuba are going well — or that the U.S.’s attention is too divided with war raging in the Middle East to open yet another front in the Caribbean by taking on the Russian-flagged tanker.

Breitbart [3/30/2026 7:01 PM, John Hayward, 2238K] reports International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi said on Sunday that Iran’s nuclear program has sustained "enormous damage," but warned "elements that were not destroyed persist" in the wake of both last summer’s massive U.S. airstrikes and the current war in Iran. Grossi told CNN host Fareed Zakaria that Iran’s nuclear ambitions have suffered major setbacks but have not been completely eliminated. "There was enormous damage, in particular during the 12-Day War last year, at Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow," he said, referencing Iran’s three main uranium enrichment sites. Grossi said the month-long Operation Epic Fury has included "targets and objectives that go far beyond the range of the nuclear field," but even combined with the damage from last year’s strikes, "not everything was destroyed.". Grossi also agreed with Zakaria’s observation that one "cannot bomb the knowledge away," or eliminate Iran’s intellectual progress toward nuclear weapons with an aerial bombing campaign. "Don’t forget that this activity of uranium enrichment, which is rather complex, is not something that is impossible to do. The methodology is quite sophisticated. The centrifuges that spin at high velocity, to separate the isotope of uranium which is interesting from the one which is not – all of these things Iran has mastered over the years," he said. Grossi noted that uranium enrichment is "not, per se, a nuclear activity," and if the Iranians are patient enough, it can be conducted in small-scale operations that would be difficult to hunt down and destroy. "You may have, in Iran, thousands – or perhaps more – of workshops, or small factories, where they could reproduce these capacities," he said. Grossi agreed with U.S. intelligence estimates that the U.S. stealth-bomber strikes against Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow inflicted "very considerable" damage, pushing Iran’s nuclear program back for years, but he said "there are things that remain.".

Washington Post [3/30/2026 10:32 PM, Karen DeYoung, 24826K] reports the United States is in direct talks with Iranian leaders over terms for ending the war, including exchanges with parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf, President Donald Trump said Monday. Asked if Ghalibaf was someone the U.S. could work with, Trump said in an interview with the New York Post, “We’re gonna find out … in about a week.” In a flurry of claims over the past two days, Trump also said that Tehran has agreed to many of the 15 demands he transmitted last week through Pakistani mediators. “They gave us most of the points,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening as he returned to Washington from a weekend at his Florida estate. “We’re having very good meetings, both directly and indirectly.” Earlier Sunday, Trump told the Financial Times that the U.S. intends to “take the oil in Iran” and control the vital shipping lane at the Strait of Hormuz, currently blocked by Iranian threats that have stopped nearly all passage to and from the Persian Gulf. Iran denied virtually all of Trump’s assertions. There have been no “direct” talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday in Tehran, only messages sent through intermediaries. He described U.S. demands, which include an end to Iran’s uranium enrichment program, the surrender of more than 900 pounds of highly enriched material and strict limits on ballistic missiles, as “very excessive, unrealistic and irrational.” In a social media post, Ghalibaf, who has previously denied reports that he was speaking to the U.S., derided the president’s claims as “so-called ‘news’ or ‘Truth’” and “just a setup” to lower the rising cost of oil. Amid widely disparate accounts of who is talking to whom about what, both sides have begun targeting each other’s energy facilities in a significant escalation of the conflict. Iranian strikes hit Israel’s largest oil refinery in Haifa early Monday, while Iran acknowledged Sunday night attacks on its electricity grid that temporarily disrupted power in Tehran and nearby areas. As Trump continued to weave between threats to extend the war and reassurances that it was close to ending, he said in a Monday morning post on his Truth Social platform that “great progress” had been achieved in “serious discussions” with a new, “more reasonable” collection of leaders in Iran. But if a deal was not reached “shortly” and the Strait of Hormuz was not opened, he threatened, “we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’”

ABC News [3/30/2026 12:15 PM, Alexandra Hutzler and Shannon K. Kingston, 34146K] reports that President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. is engaged in serious talks with a "new" and "more reasonable" regime in Iran as the war enters its fifth week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during an appearance on "Good Morning America," declined to say who exactly the U.S. is negotiating with. "Well, I’m not going to disclose to you who those people are, because it probably would get them in trouble with some other groups of people inside of Iran. Look, there’s some fractures going on there internally," Rubio said. "And if there are new people now in charge who have a more reasonable vision of the future, that would be good news for us, for them, for the entire world," the secretary continued. "But we also have to be prepared for the possibility, maybe even the probability, that that is not the case." When pushed for more clarity, Rubio said, "You have people there that are saying some of the right things privately." "But at the end of the day, we have to see if these people end up being the ones in charge, seeing if they’re the ones that have the power to deliver. We’re going to test it. We are hopeful that’s the case," he went on. "There are clearly people there talking to us in ways that previous people in charge in Iran have not spoken to us in the past." White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, at a briefing on Monday, also denied to identify the "new" leadership in Iran mentioned by the president, but insisted talks are ongoing.

FOX News [3/30/2026 6:13 AM, Benjamin Weinthal, 37576K] reports the Islamic Republic of Iran’s vast missile system is the brainchild of the U.S.-designated state-sponsor of terrorism, the communist North Korea regime, which works hand in glove with Iran, according to one of the world’s leading experts on the Iran-North Korea strategic alliance. "The missile launched at Diego Garcia was a Musudan. The Iranians bought 19 of these from the North Koreans and took delivery in 2005. They have had this capability since 2005 — and this is no ‘secret weapon,’" Bruce Bechtol, who co-authored with Anthony Celso the groundbreaking book "Rogue Allies: The Strategic Partnership Between Iran and North Korea," told Fox News Digital. Fox News Digital reported last week that Iran significantly escalated its war effort against the U.S. with its launch of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia—roughly 2,500 miles from Iran. Bechtol said, "The most important threat from Iran as the war with the United States and Israel has evolved has been the ballistic missiles, launched not only at U.S. facilities and Israeli cities, but also at neighboring Islamic countries. Thus, it is important to consider this capability and where Iran got it.". He said, "The short-range ballistic missiles that Iran has launched at key U.S. facilities and at neighboring Arab states include a key system – the ‘QIAM.’ The QIAM was developed and improved with North Korean assistance… North Korea has proliferated a lot to Iran that we are seeing right now in the war.".

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