President Donald Trump’s Transportation Security Administration is partnering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ramp up immigration enforcement.
While the two agencies are under the Department of Homeland Security, a New York Times report last week stated that “ICE has historically avoided interfering with domestic travel.”
‘The message to those in the country illegally is clear: The only reason you should be flying is to self-deport home.’
However, beginning in March, the TSA reportedly quietly expanded its data sharing with ICE.
According to the NYT, the TSA has been providing lists of travelers’ names to ICE ahead of their scheduled flights. ICE then cross-checks that information against its own database of those subject to deportation, the outlet wrote. Agents are then dispatched to apprehend those individuals at the airport.
The report noted that it is unclear how many arrests have resulted from this data-sharing effort. It claimed there was at least one such arrest by immigration officials at Boston Logan Airport on November 20. That individual was deported.
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“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,” Scott Mechkowski, the former deputy head of ICE’s New York office, told the NYT.
“This isn’t about fear; it’s about restoring order and ensuring every American knows their government enforces its laws without apology,” he added.
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Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A DHS spokesperson told Blaze News that the program was “nothing new,” adding that in February, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem “reversed the horrendous Biden-era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country and do so 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,” DHS added.
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