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Caroling TSA agent at BWI goes viral after iconic performance

By Luke Lukert
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Move over, Mariah Carey. An employee at BWI Marshall Airport is grabbing attention for her rendition of “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

Desiree is a Transportation Security Administration agent who has worked at the airport since 2023. Her rendition of the iconic Christmas tune went viral, with a TikTok of her crooning garnering millions of views.

“I was amazed at it. It got to that many people around the world. People were tagging Tyler Perry and Mariah Carey. It was amazing, insane,” she told WTOP.

She is now also getting recognized by travelers coming through the security line at the airport.

“They come through, and they’re like, ‘Are you the girl that sings Mariah Carey?’ And I’m doing bag check,” she said.

Desiree and the other TSA carolers welcomed travelers with Christmas classics all season.

“I guess the higher-ups just wanted us to bring cheer around the airport to release some of the stress that the passengers may have trying to fly in, and they have a lot going on with families and everything,” she said.

Desiree has been performing all her life and joined the TSA Choir after hearing about it from a colleague. Though she went viral for singing a Mariah Carey song, her favorite singer is Whitney Houston.

The TSA Choir holds performances throughout the year.

“We just do things involving BWI — assemblies, 9/11 remembrances. We might be able to do something in February, maybe for Black History Month,” she said.

Maryland Labor Dept. missed chance to recover $760 million in overpaid unemployment, audit says

Maryland overpaid $807.4 million in unemployment benefits since the COVID-19 pandemic and missed the opportunity to recover $760 million of that amount because it took too long do to so, state auditors said. The report published Friday by the Office of Legislative Audits covered unemployment benefit paid out between Nov. 16, 2020, and Jan. 15, 2025, when states were flush with federal cash to help them through the pandemic and the sudden and historic loss of jobs that came with it. The chance to collect many of those overpayments passed in May 2025, the auditors said. “That is quite concerning to me when we are not good stewards of taxpayer money,” said Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County), co-chair of the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee. “We have a (budget) shortfall, and we need to make sure that our money is spent on the priorities and the values we adhere to.” Labor Secretary Portia Wu said her department takes the findings of the audit “very seriously” and that it is working to recover as much as it can going forward. But she also noted that “about 90%” of the unrecoverable overpayments would have fallen under the administration of Gov. Larry Hogan (R), and that much of the money involved would not have been state funds, but federal money that states received during the pandemic.
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