The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is providing air passenger data to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) multiple times per week to identify people subject to deportation.
The program has been previously undisclosed. It’s unclear how many arrests have been made as a result of the collaboration. But documents show that it led to the arrest of Any Lucía López Belloza, a college student picked up at Boston Logan Airport on November 20 and deported to Honduras two days later. A former ICE official said 75 percent 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 between federal agencies to carry out its goal of 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 spokeswoman 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 names of individuals on a watch list for 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 anonymously. Among the concerns, that official noted, has been that enforcement activities at airports could distract from airport security and contribute to longer passenger wait times.
“This is nothing new,” a Homeland Security spokesperson said.
“Back in February, Secretary Kristi Noem reversed the Biden-era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to travel without identification. Under President Trump, TSA and DHS will no longer tolerate this. This administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport,” the spokesperson added.
The Trump administration has reportedly leaned on immigration agents to carry out a target of 3,000 arrests per day to achieve the president’s campaign promises to swiftly deport millions of people.
As part of this effort, the White House has used federal data as a key weapon. The Department of Homeland Security now has access to personal data on nearly every American, while the administration has threatened to withhold SNAP food benefits from mostly Democrat-run states if they don’t turn over immigration data on recipients. The White House has also sought to leverage tax and Veterans Affairs data as part of its immigration campaign.
