How Airport Security Became an Immigration Dragnet
ICE arrested more than 800 people after receiving traveler data from the Transportation Security Administration, internal records reviewed by Reuters show. The Transportation Security Administration supplied ICE with records on more than 31,000 travelers for possible immigration enforcement, far exceeding previously known numbers. The 31,000 records came from TSA's Secure Flight Program, created in 2007 to spot terror threats, not immigration violators.
The Program Never Meant for This
The Secure Flight regulation states the program exists for counter-terrorism, yet TSA fed its passenger lists to ICE after Trump's second term began. Reuters could not determine how many of the 800-plus arrests happened inside airports. The TSA tips were mainly useful for determining when a person would be traveling, allowing ICE to intercept them during transit or upon arrival. Immigration attorney Christina Canty told Reuters of cases including an Irish couple detained in front of their children during a Florida-to-New-York flight in summer 2025; the parents were deported and left two children, ages seven and ten, with siblings in the United States.
A Soldier's Wife Caught in the Net
Annie Ramos came to the United States from Honduras as a toddler and was detained by ICE on 2 April at her husband's Louisiana Army base days after their March wedding. Ramos, now 22, lost her case in 2005 when her family missed an immigration hearing, creating a final removal order. She applied for DACA protection in 2020, but the application was never processed. After her release Tuesday she said, "All I have ever wanted is to live with dignity in the country I have called home since I was a baby." Her husband, Staff Sergeant Matthew Blank, 23, is preparing for deployment.
A Shooting in California
ICE agents shot Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, an alleged 18th Street Gang member wanted in an El Salvador murder case, after he tried to run over an officer during a vehicle stop in Patterson, California, according to ICE Director Todd Lyons. The FBI and local sheriff's office are investigating; Mendoza Hernandez's condition has not been released.
According to Fox News, ICE Director Todd Lyons said that Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, the man shot by ICE agents, was a suspected 18th Street Gang member wanted for questioning in connection with a murder.
Political Fallout Over Airport Enforcement
Democrats in the House have demanded the administration remove ICE officers from airports, saying their presence "will cause confusion and fear." The push follows a partisan funding fight that left TSA officers missing at least two paychecks and prompted Trump to deploy ICE to more than a dozen airports in March to fill security gaps.
The sources also report that Annie Ramos's DACA application was submitted in 2020 but was not processed, highlighting her ongoing struggle for legal status.