Funding deal for DHS in the works
Airport delays affect NY crash investigation
By: Zachary Schermele
Thao Nguyen
and Jeanine Santucci
USA Today
..... As Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers deployed to ease security lines at airports across the country, the pressure on the White House and Congress to end the partial government shutdown, which affects in the Department of Homeland Security, reached its highest point yet.
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But there was optimism on Capitol Hill that a deal may be in reach before lawmakers emerged from a March 24 [2026] meeting with President Donald Trump saying negotiations were gaining serous momentum for the first time in more than a month.
..... The hopes of an off-ramp came at a critical juncture with the nation;s airports reaching a virtually untenable tipping point. TSA agents will go another week without pay, and callout rates are spiking by the day while at least 400 agents have resigned.
..... In response to long wait times, Trump deployed ICE officers to over a dozen major airports.
..... On March 23, [2026] the CEOs of Airports Council International-North America and the American Association of airport Executives, along with more than 100 airport leaders, implored Congress in a letter to end the funding standoff. Congressional Democrats and some Republicans have refused to authorized DHS funding until changes to immigration enforcement are made.
..... Delta Air Line said March 24 [2026] that it would suspend special services for members of Congress due to the "impact on resources" from the shutdown. Lawmakers will not get airport escorts or VIP treatment, for services like seat upgrades or rebooking, the airline said through they will still have access to a special phone-line for reservations.
..... Senator Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican who chairs a Senate subcommittee overseeing DHS funding, has been spearheading negotiation to end the shutdown. After sitting down at the White House with the president, she told reporters an agreement appeared to be on the horizon and Republicans were working to solidify the details.
..... The tentative agreement is likely to include funding for all DHS, including TSA, but exclude ICE's removal and enforcement operations, said a person familiar with the talks, GOP lawmakers discussed how additional money for ICE, potentially coupled with some election reforms, could be approved later this year by passing another budget law through a process called reconciliation. Such bills require only a simple majority vote in the Senate.
..... Talking to reporters outside the Senate chamber on March 24, [2026] Senate Majority Readier John Thune, R-South Dakota, confirmed that the proposed path forward could involve identifying portions of the SAVE America Act, a voting restrictions bill that Trump has said is his highest priority but that has little chance of passing the Senate, to pass through reconciliation.
..... It was a quick U-turn for Trump: USA Today reported he told Thune tow days earlier that he wouldn't be open to only partially funding DHS. he also originally linked ending the shutdown to fully passing the SAVE America Act.
..... "I talked to Santor Thune last night [03/24/2026] and he says the president has reconsidered and may be on board," Senator John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, said March 24 [2026] on Fox News.
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A White House official told USA Today that while conversations are ongoing, the deal seems acceptable. Democrats have said they still need to see the specifics outlined in legislative text.
..... However, some hard-line conservatives objected, concerned a deal could ease pressure on the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, since previsions in reconciliation laws must have a clear impact on the budget.
..... "It's hard to imagine how the SAVE American Act could be passed through reconciliation," Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote on social media on March 24. [2026] "And by 'hard' I mean 'essentially impossible.' "
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Meanwhile, scenes of immigration enforcement officers sparked unease at many airports.
..... John Pistole, who headed TSA under former President Barack Obama and also served as deputy FBI director, told CNN March 24 [2026] that the presence of immigration officers at airports could act as a "deterrent" to would-be terrorists.
..... The long security lines "are a soft-target for a putative terrorist, somebody who wants to come in and make a name for themselves, for their cause," Pistole said.
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The scene at New York City's LaGuardia Airport, where CNN reported that ICE officers were sent on March 23, [2026] remained complicated by a crash on a runway between Air Canada Express jet and a fire truck that killed two pilots.
..... The long wait times to get through security caused delays for investigators responding to the crash scene, National Transpiration Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said.
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NTSB investigators began arriving at the scene of the crash by 3 AM. ET on March 23, [2026] within hours of the crash, she said, but at least one specialist was caught up in the lines.
..... "We have our air traffic control specialist who was in line with TSA for three hours until we called in Houston to beg to see if we can get her through so we can get her hear," Homendy said. "So it's been a really big challenged to get the entire team here."
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Investigators were able to recover the plan's cockpit voice recorder, a device that records the pilots' conversation, and the plane's flight data recorder, or black box.
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The NTSB will lead the crash investigation, and Canadian government investigators will head to New York to participate in the probe.
..... Federal investigators said the runway where the crash took place will be closed likely until March 27, [2026] Homendy said. "We need to go thr9uough all that."
..... FilghtAware, a flight tracking site,s aid about 19% of flights at LaGuardia had been canceled as of 9AM. ET March 24. [2026]
..... Contributing: Reuters; Michael Loris, USA Today