Illegal aliens may need to phone home amid new ICE actions

If you’re an illegal alien, your next U.S. flight could end as a one-way trip home.

ICE is now targeting expired visa holders in its airport detention campaigns, according to the Washington Post. The move goes beyond the Department of Homeland Security’s previous focus on aliens with existing deportation orders, according to the outlet.

‘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.’

“We’ve been saying for a while: If you don’t have permanent status, you should really consider whether it’s safe to fly,” Amica Center for Immigrant Rights deputy program director Atenas Burrola Estrada told the Washington Post. “I think a lot of people were still flying, and it was safe, and that is clearly not the case anymore.”

Burrola Estrada also claimed that nearly a dozen arrests have occurred at the Reagan National, Washington Dulles International, and Baltimore/Washington International airports.

The Transportation Security Administration did not respond to a request for comment.

The Biden administration previously allowed illegal aliens to fly using their CBP One app in lieu of traditional identification. A 2024 DHS report found significant safety concerns with the app-identification and non-detainment system.

RELATED: Illegal immigrant allegedly attacks police in Virginia — after dodging prosecution for allegedly choking his wife

Gilles Clarence/AFP/Getty Images

“DHS reversed the horrendous Biden-era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement to Blaze News. “Under President Trump, 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.”

ICE signed a memorandum of agreement with TSA in May 2025, establishing data-sharing and notification systems between the agencies. The document was first obtained by American Oversight, a nonprofit organization founded by former Obama administration officials.

A Colombian woman engaged to an American citizen was detained by ICE while boarding a Southwest Airlines flight on July 17, according to her attorney, Johanna Kelley.

“There were two or three men, without uniform, without ID, in regular clothing,” Kelley told the Washington Post. “Then they said, ‘We are ICE. You need to come with us. You are arrested because you’re an illegal alien.’”

The woman was released from ICE custody on Wednesday after a Virginia judge granted her bond, according to Kelley.

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