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The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday urged a judge to dissolve the injunction that keeps the Trump administration from detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia again so he can quickly be deported to Liberia.

“Dissolution is also warranted because the Court’s Memorandum Order failed to acknowledge that the Court’s own prior injunction against removal is the sole impediment to Petitioner’s prompt removal,” the DOJ wrote in a court filing obtained by Fox News Digital. “The Court cannot both impose the impediment that delays removal and consequently prolongs detention and, at the same time, hold that the resulting detention is impermissibly prolonged.”

It added, “Any attempt by this Court to permanently enjoin the government from exercising its authority to remove the Petitioner from this country is in direct contradiction to established judicial norms, and a clear error of law.”

The administration deported Abrego Garcia, who they claim is a member of MS-13, a year ago to a prison in his native El Salvador, but he was returned to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee related to a 2022 traffic stop despite at first saying the administration had no power to bring him back.

His Lawyers deny he is a member of MS-13.

[US JUDGE VOWS TO RULE ‘SOON’ ON ABREGO GARCIA’S FATE AFTER MARATHON HEARING]

[image_1]

Kilmar Abrego Garcia arrives at U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in December.(Alex Wong / Getty Images)

He was released from detention in December on the grounds that the Trump administration had not obtained the final notice of removal order that is needed to deport him to a third country.

Abrego Garcia, 31, has become a flash point in the national immigration debate since last March, when he was deported to El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order in what Trump administration officials acknowledged was an “administrative error.”

The Supreme Court later ruled that the administration had to work to bring him back to the U.S.

[JUDGE ORDERS MIGRANT DEPORTED IN ‘ERROR’ FREE FROM ICE CUSTODY WITH CRIMINAL CASE LOOMING]

He has pleaded not guilty on the human smuggling charges and is seeking dismissal of the charges on the grounds of vindictive and selective prosecution.

The 2019 court order prevents Abrego Garcia from being deported to El Salvador after an immigration judge determined he faced danger from a gang that had threatened his family. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager and has been under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

[image_2]

A protester holds a poster of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in front of the U.S. District Court in Nashville, Tenn.(Getty Images)

Last month, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis agreed to convert her previous emergency order blocking ICE from immediately re-detaining Abrego Garcia into a longer-term form of injunctive relief sought by his lawyers.

She said that the Trump administration failed to provide the court with any “good reason to believe” that they plan to remove Abrego Garcia to a third country in the “reasonably foreseeable future.” Instead, she said, they “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.”

Abrego Garcia has said he’s willing to be sent to Costa Rica, but Acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons said he will instead be removed to Liberia.

Abrego Garcia’s attorney said in December Abrego was willing to leave for Costa Rica immediately, and that the country had given him asylum status months ago.

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[image_3]

Kilmar Abrego Garcia enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Baltimore, Md.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The government’s “persistent refusal to acknowledge Costa Rica as a viable removal option, their threats to send Abrego Garcia to African countries that never agreed to take him, and their misrepresentation to the Court that Liberia is now the only country available to Abrego Garcia, all reflect that whatever purpose was behind his detention, it was not for the ‘basic purpose’ of timely third-country removal,” Xinis said in December.

The administration asked the judge to rule on its request to have the injunction dissolved by April 17.

Fox News Michael Sinkewicz, Louis Casiano, Breanne Deppisch, and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

国际特稿：杀敌疾如雷电不讲情理法 彻底放权AI人类恐玩火自焚

2026年3月22日 05:00 / 联合早报

在最新爆发的中东战争中，用来筛选和确认攻击目标的人工智能（AI）被美国和以色列军方派上用场，大大提高了情报处理和作战效率，但也引发对AI准确性及出现失误时责任归属的担忧。目前，最终的打击决策仍掌握在人类手中，但由于监管措施未到位，各国若为争夺军事优势而逐渐放权给AI，科幻电影中AI掌控世界与人类生杀大权的末日场景，会否终将成为现实？专家告诫，最安全的做法是永远不要把关乎人类生死的决策权交给AI。

（插图／李利群）

“它无法被说服。它不懂怜悯、悔恨或恐惧。它绝对不会停手，永远不会，直到你死去。”

这是1984年经典科幻电影《魔鬼终结者》（The Terminator）中对杀手机器人的描述。影片讲述了一个AI控制的杀手机器人穿梭时空回到过去，试图杀害未来人类抵抗军领袖之母，以终结人类反抗AI的惊悚故事。

电影上映时，片中场景似乎遥不可及，但随着AI技术被大量应用到最新爆发的中东战争中，人们开始担心影片所描述的未来正迅速逼近现实。

Iran launched missiles at US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean. Here’s what that says about its capabilities

PUBLISHED Mar 21, 2026, 6:22 PM ET / CNN

Iran’s attempt to strike a US-UK base over 2,000 miles (over 3,000 kilometers) off its coast has renewed questions about Tehran’s military capabilities and how far its missiles can reach.

On Friday morning local time, Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, a joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, a US official told CNN, adding that neither of them struck the base. This marks what appears to be the first known attempt to target the base, which was deliberately built in a remote location beyond the reach of many adversaries.

While the attack was unsuccessful, it shows that Iran may not be adhering its self-imposed missile range limit of 2,000 kilometers, raising concerns about whether Tehran could hit US and European interests farther away than previously thought.

Jeffrey Lewis, distinguished scholar of global security at Middlebury College, told CNN that Iran was developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that was “reoriented to space launch” after then-Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei “imposed a 2,000-kilometer range limit” in 2017.

“They were waiting for Khamenei to change his mind or, well, die,” Lewis said. “Now he’s dead.”

Trita Parsi, the co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, believes the US homeland is safe from Iranian strikes, but he told CNN that the attempted attack “suggests that other bases that the US thought is outside of the range of Iran may actually be within the range,” along with American ships “that have been kept 3,000 kilometers away.”

Parsi also wonders whether this incident could cause some European countries that have allowed the US to use its military bases to reconsider.

Earlier this month, the UK agreed to a US request to allow American forces to use its military bases for operations against Iranian missile sites. Meanwhile, Romania has allowed US refueling planes, as well as US surveillance and satellite equipment, to be at its bases, according to Reuters.

“It does put certain European bases in within their range,” Parsi said, adding, “I don’t know if that’s going to cause a rethink on the European side but it definitely increases the risk for them.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, including in his first comments after the US struck Iran late last month, that Tehran has been building missiles that “could soon reach the American homeland.”

However, an unclassified assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2025 said that Iran could develop a “militarily-viable” intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 “should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.”

Sources also told CNN late last month that there was no intelligence to suggest that Iran is pursuing an intercontinental ballistic missile program to hit the US at this time.

Parsi said the unsuccessful strike on Diego Garcia raises “question marks whether (Iran) may also have other types of weapons that we did not believe that they have that they might be using.”

Iran has several missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers, including the Sejjil and Khorramshahr weapons, along with the long-range Soumar cruise missile that has a range of up to 3,000 kilometers, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies,

Sam Lair, research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told CNN that Iran’s “space launch vehicles, including the (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’) solid-propellant Ghaem-100, could clearly reach longer ranges than their regional missile force if they were used ballistically rather than as a space launch vehicle.”

“People often forget space launch is fundamentally the same technology as ballistic missiles,” he continued.

Lair also said the Iranians perhaps extended the range of a missile with lighter explosive material.

“Maybe a khorramshahr with a very small payload, like too small to do anything,” Lair said.

Meanwhile, Parsi questioned whether Iran has the “targeting intelligence” and missile accuracy to successfully strike farther targets.

“There’s large parts of that area, not Diego Garcia itself, in which the Iranians don’t have the ability to generate their own targeting intelligence because they don’t have eyes there essentially through their satellites, etc.,” Parsi said. “So that intelligence is most likely coming from the Russians and the Chinese, and this is another one of those elements of this war that apparently the administration is taken by surprise by.”

CNN reported earlier this month that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence about the locations and movements of American troops, ships and aircraft, according to multiple people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue.

以色列南部城镇遭伊朗导弹袭击 附近有敏感核设施

发布时间：2026年3月22日 07:01 / 来源：联合早报

法新社电视台的画面显示，3月21日，一枚伊朗导弹击中以色列迪莫纳镇，一栋建筑物遭到破坏。 （法新社）

伊朗导弹袭击了以色列南部两座城镇，造成100多人受伤，其中一座城镇附近设有以色列的敏感核设施。

以色列防空系统未能拦截这些导弹。

法新社引述医护人员星期五（3月21日）的话说，两枚导弹直接命中目标，炸毁居民楼的正面，并在地面上炸出弹坑。

救援人员称，阿拉德镇（Arad）有75人受伤，其中10人伤势严重。数小时前，附近的迪莫纳镇（Dimona）也有33人受伤。

伊朗国家电视台称，针对迪莫纳的导弹袭击，是“回应”以色列此前袭击伊朗位于纳坦兹（Natanz）的核设施。

迪莫纳位于内盖夫沙漠之中，附近设有一处以色列的敏感核设施。

新华社引述救援部门通报，以色列迪莫纳21日晚遭导弹袭击，已造成一栋建筑物倒塌、39人受伤。

以色列第12频道电视台当晚公布一段目击者拍摄于现场的视频显示，一枚疑似导弹的发光物从天而降，末端加速后直接击中远处的街区，随即爆出火光，同时能听到剧烈爆炸、震动和玻璃破碎的声音。

《以色列时报》网站当天援引救援部门的话报道，“导弹直接击中迪莫纳一栋建筑物”。

以色列南部多地当天拉响多轮防空警报。

伊朗塔斯尼姆通讯社当天报道称，伊朗导弹袭击以色列南部后，迪莫纳发生大范围爆炸。

Dems block GOP amendment tying voter ID bill to transgender sports ban

Published March 21, 2026 1:55pm EDT / By Alex Miller, Fox News

Senate Democrats blocked a move by Senate Republicans to modify a Trump-backed voter ID bill with a provision that would halt men in women’s sports.

The amendment to the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act from Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., was one of several tweaks to the legislation requested by President Donald Trump.

Tuberville’s amendment could have codified Trump’s earlier executive order from last year to ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports — a culture war flashpoint between Republicans and Democrats that, unless turned into law, will likely be reversed should a Democratic administration take over in 2028.

GOP SENATOR’S GAMBIT EXPOSES FALSE DEM CLAIMS ABOUT SUPPORTING VOTER ID

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) speaks to reporters as he returns to his office at the U.S. Capitol on February 10, 2026 in Washington, DC(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

But, as expected, the add-on failed on a party-line vote in the upper chamber.

The amendment was the first of several expected to hit the floor as Republicans continue their takeover strategy to debate the bill. Saturday marked the fifth day that the SAVE America Act dominated the floor.

“I would do whatever it took to get this passed,” Tuberville told Fox News Digital. “This is probably one of the most important bills that’s come through here in a long, long time. It’s just pitting Americans versus non-Americans.”

THUNE ACCUSES CRITICS OF ‘CREATING FALSE EXPECTATIONS’ AMID BACKLASH OVER STALLED SAVE AMERICA ACT

UNITED STATES – FEBRUARY 4: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during the House and Senate Democrats’ joint news conference on DHS funding negotiations in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, February 4, 2026. Schumer is flanked from left by Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Others on the docket include a ban on transgender surgeries on minors and halting unsolicited mail-in ballots — add-ons that Trump requested Republicans tack onto the voter ID and citizen verification bill.

And the ongoing floor takeover likely won’t result in the SAVE America Act passing, given that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats are unified in their rejection of the legislation.

“So I’m like, President Trump, we need to get it done,” he continued. “But I don’t know whether we’ve got enough support, even on the Republican side, much less Democrats.”

REPUBLICANS SIGNAL NO RETREAT ON SAVE ACT AS MARATHON SENATE DEBATE KICKS OFF

US President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving on Marine One in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, March 18, 2026.(Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The unlimited debate on the legislation is meant to mimic the talking filibuster, a strategy that would lower the threshold to pass the legislation to a simple 50-vote majority at the cost of deadlocking the Senate floor.

And Senate Democrats would be able to offer an unlimited number of amendments that could drastically change the bill, which Republicans have acknowledged they don’t have the numbers to block.

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The floor takeover they’re currently undertaking is largely meant to shift blame from Republicans to Schumer and Democrats for the bill’s expected failure, given that, in order to pass conventionally, the GOP would need 60 votes.

But others hope, like Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who is the lead sponsor of the SAVE America Act in the Senate, that the constant debate will grind down Democratic resistance and flip some over to support the bill.

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

2 skiers killed, 5 hurt in northern Italy avalanche

March 21, 2026 / 2:16 PM EDT / CBS/AFP

Two skiers died and five others were injured on Saturday when an avalanche rumbled down on them in the Italian Alps, in the Trentino-Alto Adige region, the mountain rescue service said.

The service’s operation centre received an alert around midday that a dozen skiers were caught up in the avalanche, a spokesman said.

“Six helicopters were dispatched,” and nearby hospitals were notified, he said.

The avalanche happened at an altitude of around 7,874 feet on the slopes of the 8,757-foot Hohe Ferse near the town of Ratschings, close to the border with Austria, the Associated Press reported.

Rescuers search on the site where an avalanche broke loose in Val Ridanna, in Alto Adige, northern Italy, engulfing a group of 10 skiers Saturday, March 21, 2026. Italian Alpine the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps Trentino Via AP

Dozens of rescue personnel, as well as firemen and law enforcement, participate in the search-and-rescue effort.

A total of 25 skiers were on the mountainside where the avalanche occurred, but most had escaped the brunt of the slide of snow, rocks and ice.

A few days ago, in the same region, a Polish man was killed by an avalanche.

The avalanche warning given for the region on Saturday evaluated the danger as between low and moderate.

Europe has been hit by a string of avalanches this winter. Last month, at least five people, including an American, were killed in a string of avalanches in western Austria. Threeavalanchesacross Austria killed eight skiers in Jan., authorities said. Six skiers diedin France after being caught in avalanches in various Alpine resorts.

In:

• Avalanche
• Italy
• Australia

© 2026 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

How avalanches form and how to stay safe in one

How avalanches form and what to do if you find yourself in one 03:14

How avalanches form and what to do if you find yourself in one

(03:14)

Schumer accused Republicans of holding ‘workers and travelers and entire airports’ hostage

By Alex Miller
Fox News

Published March 21, 2026 2:50pm EDT

Video: Trump to send ICE agents to airports if Dems don’t sign DHS funding deal

President Donald Trump threatened to send ICE agents to conduct airport security if Democrats don’t sign a Homeland Security deal.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Senate Republicans blocked an attempt by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to only pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers as the Homeland Security shutdown drags on.

Despite being in the minority and not controlling the Senate floor, Schumer used an arcane tactic to force a procedural vote to allow the Senate to get onto the bill in Democrats’ move to shift the narrative of the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.

“It is unacceptable for workers and travelers and entire airports to get taken hostage in political games,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “But that’s what the Republicans are doing. It is unacceptable to say we will only pay TSA workers if it is attached to a bill that funds ICE with no reforms, but that’s what the Republicans have been doing.”

GOP SENATOR’S GAMBIT EXPOSES FALSE DEM CLAIMS ABOUT SUPPORTING VOTER ID

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., forced a rarely used procedural tactic to pay TSA workers, which Senate Republicans blocked in their quest to fully reopen DHS.(Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

The shutdown entered its 36th day on Saturday as the ongoing partial closure hurtles toward matching the record-breaking full government shutdown from last year. Schumer’s failed gambit follows increasingly long wait times at airports as thousands of TSA agents go without pay.

Senate Democrats have dug in deep in their demands for stringent reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and have so far refused to reopen the agency or temporarily extend funding to end the closure until they get what they want.

Senate Republicans and the White House made a new compromise offer to Democrats on Friday night after an open letter from the administration on several reforms to immigration operations was revealed earlier this week. The letter spurred two back-to-back meetings on Capitol Hill with Republicans, Democrats and administration officials.

THUNE ACCUSES CRITICS OF ‘CREATING FALSE EXPECTATIONS’ AMID BACKLASH OVER STALLED SAVE AMERICA ACT

Travelers wait in line at a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) in Atlanta, Georgia,(Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Whether they accept that offer or counter remains in the air for now. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who was in the meeting, said that she hoped there would be another soon.

“That will be up to them, but I hope so,” Britt said.

GOP SENATOR’S GAMBIT EXPOSES FALSE DEM CLAIMS ABOUT SUPPORTING VOTER ID

Still, Republicans tried and failed for a fifth time to fully reopen the agency on Friday. In the background, there have been several attempts by Senate Democrats to move forward with standalone funding bills — like Schumer’s gambit — to open parts of DHS, save for immigration enforcement.

DHS SHUTDOWN TIED FOR SECOND-LONGEST EVER AS DEMS AGAIN BLOCK FUNDING AMID AIRPORT CHAOS, TERRORISM CONCERNS

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during the Senate Republicans’ news conference in the Ohio Clock Corridor in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026.(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Time is also running out for lawmakers to find middle ground on reopening the agency, given that they are set to leave Washington, D.C., for a two-week break at the end of next week.

At a press conference earlier Saturday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital that it’d be “very, very hard to explain if we leave town this next week without having funded the Department of Homeland Security.”

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“At some point [the Democrats] are going to be held accountable for this,” Thune said.

“I know they think it’s, as has been described by one of their leaders, ‘very serene, very serene’ with their position,” he continued. “Well, I’m telling you something, the people who are sitting in those lines at the airports right now don’t see it as very serene. This needs to be resolved.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6391333970112

Fed Chair Powell lauds Volcker’s ‘willingness to resist’ | Reuters

By Ann Saphir
March 21, 2026 5:32 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

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Item 1 of 2 Former U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul A. Volcker speaks at a news conference in New York, U.S. on June 8, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

[1/2]Former U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul A. Volcker speaks at a news conference in New York, U.S. on June 8, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

March 21 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Saturday lauded former Fed Chair Paul Volcker’s “willingness to resist” political pressure as he fought inflation in the ​1980s, remarks that have particular resonance as Powell presses his own defense ​of the Fed’s independence amid the Trump administration’s efforts to get him to lower rates.

Volcker ignored his critics and raised interest rates sharply in the early 1980s, triggering a recession but ​also returning the U.S. economy to price stability.

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“His actions remind us that independence ​and integrity are inseparable—we need independence to do what is right, ⁠and we need integrity to use that independence wisely,” Powell said in a ​taped video accepting the Paul A. Volcker Public Integrity Award.

Over the past year Powell ​has fought his own political battles over Fed independence, with Trump frequently berating him for not easing policy and threatening to try to oust him.

Trump has also tried to fire Fed Governor ​Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud, a move she is fighting in a ​case now before the Supreme Court.

In January, the Department of Justice opened a criminal probe into ​Powell’s ⁠handling of renovations to the Fed’s Washington headquarters, a development Powell says is an attempt to intimidate him into setting policy as the president wants.

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On Wednesday Powell pledged not to leave the central bank until the probe is resolved, putting a wrench ​into Trump’s hopes of ​soon replacing him ⁠with a central bank chief sympathetic to his demands for lower interest rates. Fed chairs typically resign when their leadership terms ​are up, as Powell’s is on May 15.

A top Republican ​has also ⁠vowed a hold on Trump’s nominee to replace Powell, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, as long as the DOJ probe remains open.

“Ultimately, each of us will want to look ⁠back ​at the arc of our lives and know ​that we did what was the right thing,” Powell said. “As Paul Volcker showed throughout his career, in the ​end, our integrity is all we have.”

Reporting by Ann Saphir; editing by Diane Craft

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., accused Senate Democrats of not having “any excuses” to continue blocking Homeland Security funding as Republicans and the White House continue to make repeated offers to reopen the government.

“The opportunity to actually drive this to a conclusion is there,” Thune said at a press conference on Saturday in response to Fox News Digital. “You have to have, obviously, to negotiate a deal, you got to have two sides at the table. The White House is there, Senate Republicans are there. The question is, are Senate Democrats going to take yes for an answer?”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entered its 36th day of shutdown as Senate Democrats continue to block funding for the agency in their pursuit of reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

[DHS SHUTDOWN TIED FOR SECOND-LONGEST EVER AS DEMS AGAIN BLOCK FUNDING AMID AIRPORT CHAOS, TERRORISM CONCERNS]

[image_1]

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued that Democrats were continuing their push to keep DHS closed because it was “politically advantageous.”(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

After more than two weeks of negotiations appearing to have stalled, Democrats responded to the White House’s latest offer. That spurred two face-to-face meetings with Senate Republicans and Trump administration officials, including border czar Tom Homan, on Capitol Hill.

The latest meeting, which wrapped on Friday, saw Republicans offer Senate Democrats a compromise DHS funding bill.

Thune said the meeting went well and hoped the parties will meet again over the weekend. He characterized the GOP’s offer as filled “with a lot of reforms that have been requested and asked for by Democrats.”

[DEM SENATORS CALL TO FUND DHS AFTER VOTING TO BLOCK IT 4 TIMES AMID SHUTDOWN FIGHT]

[image_2]

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., accused Senate Democrats of being more afraid of “ICE than they are of Iran.”(Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It comes as lines at airports snake for blocks, tens of thousands of federal workers go without pay, and concerns about increased threats in the U.S. as the Pentagon continues Operation Epic Fury against the Iranian regime.

Still, Thune and the GOP have grown increasingly frustrated with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats’ unwillingness to engage in negotiations over the last several weeks.

“We have the Department of Homeland Security closed right now because apparently my Democratic colleagues are more afraid of ICE than they are of Iran and the challenges that we face now in the conflict internationally that we know that we have threats back in the homeland,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said at Saturday’s press conference.

[DEMS UNMOVED AS WHITE HOUSE REVEALS DHS CONCESSIONS IN SHUTDOWN BATTLE]

[image_3]

Travelers wait in line at a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, on Monday, March 9, 2026. Airports in the U.S. are reporting longer-than-normal wait times in security lines, as TSA agents are poised to miss their first full paycheck this week.(Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Republicans tried and failed for a fifth time to fully reopen the agency on Friday. In the background, there have been several attempts by Senate Democrats to move forward with standalone funding bills to open parts of DHS, excluding immigration enforcement.

The Senate will have a full vote on a standalone funding bill for the Transportation Security Administration, pushed by Schumer, later on Saturday. It will likely fail, given Republicans’ position that the department should be completely reopened.

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“I know they think it’s, as has been described by one of their leaders, ‘very serene, very serene’ with their position,” Thune said. “Well, I’m telling you something, the people who are sitting in those lines at the airports right now don’t see it as very serene. This needs to be resolved. We need a result.”

In a Truth Social post later Saturday, President Donald Trump threatened to deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports if Democrats did not accept a deal. He said ICE would handle airport security and immediately arrest illegal immigrants coming into the U.S., with a special focus on Somalians.

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

Trump threatens to deploy ICE agents to airports Monday if funding deal isn’t reached

2026-03-21T18:48:54.989Z / CNN

By

[Alejandra Jaramillo]

,

Riane Lumer

30 min ago

PUBLISHED Mar 21, 2026, 2:48 PM ET

Immigration Aviation news Federal agencies Air travel safety

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President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media onboard Air Force One on March 15, 2026, while en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland from West Palm Beach, Florida.

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President Donald Trump said Saturday he will deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to US airports on Monday if an agreement isn’t reached to fund the Department of Homeland Securityamid a partial government shutdown.

“If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!” the president wrote on Truth Social Saturday afternoon. “I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!”

It is unclear what function the ICE agents would perform since they’re not trained in airport security screening. TSA screeners have a several months-long training period before they’re on the job, though airline employees and private security companies have partnered on line controlling and guarding exit doors.

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The agents could potentially help in more limited roles — like managing lines, directing passengers or helping move people through the checkpoint process — to free up trained TSA officers for critical security functions.

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the White House for more information.

The threat comes as a weekslong stalemate over DHS funding has led to disruptions at airports across the country, with Transportation Security Administration workers going without pay, and staffing shortages contributing to delays. Lawmakers from both parties have been working to reach an agreement to reopen the department, but a resolution remains uncertain.

Trump suggested in an earlier Truth Social post on Saturday that the ICE agents would “do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia.”

CNN’s Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.

Immigration Aviation news Federal agencies Air travel safety

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