As federal immigration enforcement efforts ramp up at airports across the country, some major airlines have begun pushing back against officials using flight manifests to detain individuals. [1]
Ice Arrests
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials made between 12 and 36 arrests per day at U.S. airports last month. They are targeting people accused of overstaying their visas.
The gate agent reportedly wouldn’t allow officers to board without a judicial warrant signed by a judge.
The crackdown led to a recent incident on July 25. A Southwest Airlines gate agent stopped ICE officers from boarding a flight from Dallas to Orlando. The gate agent reportedly wouldn’t allow officers to board without a judicial warrant signed by a judge.
Following the incident, Southwest said in a statement that it “has longstanding policies in place to ensure appropriate legal documentation is presented by law enforcement personnel before any information about customers is shared.”
TSA
The surge in arrests follows reports that ICE entered into a data-sharing agreement with the Transportation Security Administration. Officers have now deployed to at least 25 airports amid pressure from the White House to make more arrests.
Another unnamed airline at a southern airport also recently refused to help ICE access a jet bridge to arrest a traveling man. However, several other encounters have ended in arrests. Incidents were recorded at airports in San Francisco and Las Vegas.
Here Unlawfully
During one encounter in Denver last month, a passenger pleaded with a Southwest agent as ICE officers removed a friend from an Oakland-bound plane. Despite the intervention, the 27-year-old woman from Ecuador was arrested for allegedly overstaying her visa.
The Department of Homeland Security defended the increased enforcement efforts. A DHS spokesperson said, “DHS reversed the horrendous Biden-era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country. Under President Trump, DHS will no longer tolerate this.”
Notes:
- ^NewsNation (2026). Airlines push back on ICE enforcement at airports. NewsNation. Retrieved from https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/airlines-ice-enforcement-airports-southwest-wsj/ (go back ↩)
