* Passengers face hours-long waits in security lines

* LaGuardia collision kills two, injures several, causes

flight cancellations

* ICE agents deployed to 14 airports for crowd control,

potential arrests

* Airlines face rising fuel costs, cut flights amid

budget standoff

By Rich McKay, David Shepardson and Andy Sullivan

ATLANTA/WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, March 23 (Reuters) - Two

pilots died in a runway accident that shut New York's LaGuardia

Airport and President Donald Trump deployed armed immigration

agents to help with hours-long lines, adding further strain to a

U.S. air-travel system already hobbled by personnel shortages

and rising fuel costs.

The crash between an Air Canada Express jet and a

fire truck at LaGuardia injured dozens of passengers and led to

hundreds of flight cancellations at the start of the working

week, the latest disruption for airports and carriers that have

been knocked off-kilter by a weeks-long budget standoff in

Congress.

Travelers have endured hours-long waits at security

screening checkpoints in recent days as absentee rates have

spiked among Transportation Security Administration employees

who have gone without pay for more than a month.

"If you work, you should get your money. Why should that be

a problem?" said traveler Edwin Blain, 60, who showed up four

hours early to avoid missing his flight at Atlanta's

Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, the nation's busiest, where 42% of

TSA agents were absent on Sunday.

ICE DEPLOYED TO AIRPORTS

On Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents

wearing flak jackets and pistols stood guard in airports in

Atlanta, New York and New Jersey, according to Reuters

witnesses. They were not wearing the masks that have become a

divisive symbol of Trump's immigration crackdown and a subject

of negotiations in Congress.

White House immigration czar Tom Homan said agents had been

deployed to 14 airports, in cities including New York, Chicago,

Atlanta and Houston.

Authorities said the agents would provide crowd control, but

Trump said they could also make arrests - raising concerns that

the chaotic raids that have played out on the streets of

Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere might come to the nation's

airports as well.

"They're able to now arrest illegals as they come into the

country. That's very fertile territory," Trump told reporters.

"But that's not why they're there. They're really there to

help."

In Washington, there was little sign that the standoff

between Trump's Republicans and opposition Democrats would end

soon. Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland

Security without new curbs on immigration agents, who have

killed U.S. citizens and sparked public outrage during their

crackdown.

Though the White House has engaged in talks, Trump said on

Monday he would not sign off on any compromise until Congress

first passed a series of voting restrictions that Democrats have

rejected, adding another potential roadblock to a deal.

Airlines are also facing rising fuel costs, which have

spiked since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran more than three

weeks ago. United Airlines said on Friday it would cut

flights through the busy summer travel season, citing elevated

oil prices.

LAGUARDIA COLLISION KILLS TWO, SEVERAL HOSPITALIZED

In New York, the pilot and first officer of an Air Canada

Express jet were killed when the plane collided with a fire

truck while it was landing, while another nine people were

hospitalized with serious injuries. The CRJ-900 plane, operated

by regional partner Jazz Aviation, had been carrying 72

passengers and four crew members. Some 572 flights were

canceled, more than 50% of LaGuardia's daily total.

A separate 35-minute ground stop at nearby Newark Liberty

International Airport on Monday morning added to delays after

air traffic controllers evacuated their tower because of a

burning smell from an elevator, the Federal Aviation

Administration said.

U.S. aviation has faced a chronic shortage of air traffic

controllers, but it was not immediately clear what led to the

crash. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and other officials

were traveling to New York to investigate. Air-crash

investigations typically find that accidents result from

multiple contributing factors, rather than a single cause.

Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of

New York and New Jersey, said the fire truck was responding to a

separate aircraft that had reported an "issue with odor."

According to air traffic control audio, a controller can be

heard telling the craft that a fire truck was en route and

clearing a truck to cross a runway. Moments later, the

controller can be heard saying: "Stop, stop, stop, truck 1 stop,

truck 1, stop."

On Monday morning, the Air Canada ( ACDVF ) jet could be seen on the

runway, surrounded by emergency vehicles, its crushed cockpit

pointing skyward. By Monday afternoon, LaGuardia had reopened

one of its runways.