ICE Arrests at Airports: What Immigrants Should Know Before Traveling
[Photo credit: Megan Varner / Getty Images]
Earlier this year, we shared with our readers that ICE officers were patrolling airports and that TSA agents were assisting them in identifying immigrants with removal orders. This activity has not abated, and recently, ICE has also begun detaining people who do not have removal orders.
We want to offer an important reminder: if you do not have an approved immigration status, and especially if you have an active removal order, it is in your best interest to avoid airports at this time, including for domestic travel.
ICE Arrests at Airports Now Include People Without Removal Orders
ICE is no longer limiting its detentions to only people who have been ordered deported. On July 14, ICE arrested a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, Lorenzo Thompson, at the Nashville airport while he was at work.
An ICE spokesperson cited an overstayed visa as the reason for Mr. Thompson’s detention, even though he held a valid work permit and has a pending asylum case.
The story is the same for many immigrants detained while traveling through airports across the United States, despite having a pending application for immigration status.
An Ecuadorian au pair was ambushed at her gate and escorted away by agents in Denver; a Russian high-school student was arrested in Houston; a Colombian DACA recipient was detained in Boston – to name just a few recent examples. Each of these individuals was law-abiding, with no criminal history, and had a valid work permit and/or an application for immigration status pending.
Pending Applications and Work Permits May Not Prevent an ICE Arrest
In defense of these detentions, ICE spokespersons have reiterated the same blanket reasoning: that work permits, pending asylum cases, DACA status, and Temporary Protected Status do not confer legal status in the U.S., and therefore don’t prevent ICE from arresting and deporting so-called “illegal” immigrants.
How TSA and Airlines Share Traveler Information With ICE
ICE is not working alone in its deportation mission. A recent Reuters report uncovered that TSA has shared over 31,000 traveler records with ICE, resulting in at least 800 arrests.
Airlines, too, are complicit in the sharing of traveler information. One Southwest spokesperson interviewed after the arrest in Denver noted that the airline will comply “with applicable state and federal law when asked to share information about customers.”
What Immigrants Should Know Before Traveling by Air
Recent events have underscored that ICE will take any action they want to meet the deportation quotas required by the current administration. This includes detentions of people traveling domestically through our local airports – Dulles (IAD), National (DCA), and Baltimore (BWI) – and around the country.
As such, we urge those with pending immigration status to avoid air travel at this time.
If you have any travel questions or are detained while traveling, please contact our office. Benach Pitney Reilly will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates.