‘Only reason you should be flying…’: ICE using ‘confidential’ air passenger data for deportation

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been receiving lists of travelers who are coming through airports to cross-check with their list of people who ICE thinks should be deported, making the work easier but in a controversial way. The New York Times reported that since March, the list of air travelers has stopped being confidential and ICE has been receiving such lists several times a week. White House did not deny the co-ordination between the two departments as DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said: “The message to those in the country illegally is clear: The only reason you should be flying is to self-deport home.”A DHS spokesperson said this is not new. “Back in February, 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,” the spokesperson added. “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.”Airlines provide passenger information to the Transportation Security Administration after a flight is reserved. The information is compared against national security databases to look for terrorists. But this is the first time that the TSA is getting involved in a domestic criminal or immigration matter, a former agency official told NYT. The arrest of Any Lucía López Belloza, the college student picked up at Boston Logan Airport on November 20 was a result of the TSA and ICE coordination. López had been on her way to visit her family in Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday. Neither she nor her family knew that she was subject to a deportation order. The government said there was a long-standing deportation order dating back to 2015 which she remained subject to because she hadn’t resolved it.She came to the US with her family from Honduras when she was a young child to seek asylum; she had lived most of her life in the US and grew up in Texas.