TSA official criticizes ICE presence amid airport chaos
TSA officials say staffing shortages are accelerating delays at airports during the partial government shutdown, and ICE agents are causing confusion.
WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 800 people in response to tips shared by federal airport security officials from the beginning of President Donald Trump’s presidency through February 2026, internal ICE data reviewed by Reuters shows, far more than previously known publicly.
The information came from the Transportation Security Administration, which provided records on more than 31,000 travelers to ICE for possible immigration enforcement, according to the data.
Reuters could not determine how many arrests occurred inside the airport, but the TSA tips will primarily help determine when people travel.
ICE and TSA are part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The two agencies have traditionally shared information related to national security threats, but began focusing on routine immigration arrests last year as part of President Trump’s mass deportations.
The TSA program was designed to combat terrorism
The records of 31,000 travelers were collected by the TSA’s Secure Flight program. The program was created in 2007 to allow TSA to review passenger information for people who may be on U.S. government watch lists. Regulations outlining its purpose say the program was aimed at combating terrorism, not tracking immigrant criminals.
DHS did not respond to questions about TSA providing passenger information to ICE, but said that under President Trump, TSA is “pursuing solutions that improve the resiliency, safety, and efficiency of the entire system.”
Arrest and traveler records that TSA shared with ICE before Trump’s term were not available.
U.S. airports and immigration authorities have been at the center of a partisan funding battle since mid-February, when Democrats rejected additional funding to support the Republican president’s immigration crackdown without reforms to curtail aggressive tactics.
The conflict blocked the passage of a bill funding DHS and left TSA guards without at least two full paychecks. President Trump sent ICE agents to more than a dozen airports in March to assist with security operations after some TSA employees began making unpaid sick calls.
Democrats criticized the deployment and called on the Trump administration to remove it. A group of more than 40 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives said in a letter to newly sworn-in Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullin last week that ICE agents “will cause chaos and fear” if allowed to remain at airports.
Report of unexpected arrest at airport
Multiple incidents in which ICE agents arrested travelers at U.S. airports have sparked a backlash.
ICE agents detained a college student traveling from Boston to Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving in November, and arrested a weeping mother at San Francisco International Airport the day before President Trump’s airport deployment began.
DHS defended both arrests and said they were subject to a final removal order.
Reuters spoke to three immigration lawyers who said they were familiar with cases where people without legal immigration status were arrested at airports.
The case involves an Irish couple who had lived in the United States for more than 20 years and were detained by immigration authorities in front of their children last summer as they tried to fly from Florida to New York after a vacation, said Christina Canty, one of the lawyers.
Canty said her parents, who had pending applications for permanent residency, were deported and left their two young children, ages 7 and 10, in the U.S. with their adult siblings.
In a separate case, a Chinese woman seeking permanent residency and receiving a final deportation order was detained by ICE last year at the Atlanta airport on her way to Philadelphia, one of her lawyers said.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Christina Cook in San Francisco; Editing by Rod Nickell)
