Immigration agents are using air passenger fata for deportation effort

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is providing the names of all air travelers to immigration officials, substantially expanding its use of data sharing to expel people under deportation orders.

Under the previously undisclosed program, the Transportation Security Administration provides a list multiple times a week to Immigration and Customs Enforcement of travelers who will be coming through airports. ICE can then match the list against its own database of people subject to deportation and send agents to the airport to detain those people.

It is unclear how many arrests have been made as a result of the collaboration. But documents obtained by the New York Times show that it led to the arrest of Any Lucía López Belloza, the college student picked up at Boston Logan Airport on Nov. 20 and deported to Honduras two days later. A former ICE official said 75% of instances in that official’s region where names were flagged by the program yielded arrests.

ICE has historically avoided interfering with domestic travel. But the partnership between airport security and the immigration agency, which began quietly in March, is the latest way the Trump administration is increasing cooperation and information sharing among federal agencies in service of the president’s goal of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history.

“The message to those in the country illegally is clear: The only reason you should be flying is to self-deport home,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.

Airline passengers have long been subject to some federal scrutiny. Airlines typically provide passenger information to TSA after a flight is reserved. That information is compared against national security databases, including the Terrorist Screening Dataset, which includes the names of individuals on a watch list of known or suspected terrorists.

But the TSA previously did not get involved in domestic criminal or immigration matters, said one former agency official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the issue freely. Among the concerns, the former official said, has been that enforcement activities at airports could distract from airport security and contribute to longer passenger wait times.

“If you have more officers conducting arrests at airports, it puts more strain on the system; delays and complications may annoy and frighten some travelers, and those who are unsure about their status will move away from air travel,” said Claire Trickler-McNulty, a senior ICE official during the Biden administration. “It will continue to reduce the space where people feel safe going about their business.”

The push to ramp up enforcement is pervasive inside the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE and the TSA. Earlier this year, Stephen Miller, a top White House official, floated a goal of 3,000 immigration arrests a day and met with top ICE officials about how to increase deportations.

Some former ICE officials said the program would be a huge help to an agency struggling to meet the numbers of deportations sought by the Trump administration.

“The administration has turned routine travel into a force multiplier for removals, potentially identifying thousands who thought they could evade the law simply by boarding a plane,” said Scott Mechkowski, the former deputy head of the ICE office in New York City. “This isn’t about fear; it’s about restoring order and ensuring every American knows their government enforces its laws without apology.”

An airport has an added benefit to authorities of a location where potential targets have been scanned for weapons. And, as in the case of López, people flagged as part of the program have been able to be apprehended and deported very quickly.

López, 19, had a previous deportation order. In 2018, according to internal records, her case had been referred to ICE for potential arrest. Despite that, she said she did not know about the order and was able to continue to live in the country without issues. Most recently, she was attending Babson College, where she was studying business as a freshman.

Things changed Nov. 20, when López arrived at Boston Logan Airport on her way to Texas. She went through security with her Honduran passport without incident, she said, and arrived at her gate early enough to grab a cup of coffee.

When it was time to board, however, her boarding pass did not work.

The second time it was scanned, she noticed an X on the computer screen in front of the agent, who told her to go to customer service to figure out what was happening, she said.

“Oh, you’re Any,” one of the federal agents waiting for her said, according to López. Internal records show she was initially detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

“He was like, ‘Well, you’re going to come with us. You’re going to be filling a bunch of paperwork,’ ” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Well, I have to be boarding the plane because I have to leave right now.’ And he was like, ‘Well, I don’t think you’re even going to be on that flight.’ ”

Activists blasted the airport deportation program as one intended to frighten immigrants.

“This is another attempt to terrorize and punish communities and will make people terrified to ever leave their homes for fear of being unjustly detained and disappeared out of the country before they have a chance to contest the detention,” said Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First, an immigrant advocacy organization.

Documents obtained by the Times show López’s arrest involved an ICE office in California that plays a key role in the airport program. The office, called the Pacific Enforcement Response Center, sends tips to immigration officers across the country and requests to local jails to hold immigrants. Documents show the office flagged López’s flight information to ICE officers in Boston.

The document details how this is part of a collaboration “with Transportation Security Administration to send actionable leads to the field regarding aliens with a final order of removal that appear to have an impending flight scheduled.”

A former senior ICE official with knowledge of the airport program said the California office often sent several tips a day on potential arrestees at airports in the region the official worked in. The former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal law enforcement matters, said ICE officers received the passenger’s flight number and departure time, as well as a photo of the target – sometimes just hours before the plane took off.

The program is particularly effective because it allows ICE to quickly deport those who are arrested, the former official said.

The arrest of López is not the only one from the program that has led to media attention.

In late October, Marta Brizeyda Renderos Leiva, a woman from El Salvador, was arrested at the airport in Salt Lake City. Leiva also had a final deportation order. Video of the arrest shows Leiva yelling as officers pulled her out of the airport.

Internal records obtained by the Times show that Leiva’s flight information had been tipped off to local officers by the California office as well.

The Trump administration has tried to leverage other databases to track down immigrants it wants to detain or deport, including the IRS, which earlier this year agreed to hand over the addresses of migrants to ICE. A federal court blocked the effort in November.

López’s case drew publicity in part because she had no criminal record. She had been planning to go home and spend Thanksgiving with her family, including going to church and eating Thanksgiving dinner together. It was a surprise trip.

“I was thinking, ‘OK, this is what I’m going to do with them,’ ” she recalled about the plans she had to spend time with her relatives. “This day I’m going to do this. This day I’m going to be with, like, friends, family and stuff like that. That was the only thing that was going through my mind.”

Now, in Honduras, she is trying to figure out a way to transfer colleges. She misses going to church with her family, to a Texas grocery chain and her mother’s cooking, she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.