Airport security agents leak passenger data to ICE, leading to the arrest of over 800 migrants.

From the beginning of Trump's second term until February 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested more than 800 people. It was assisted in this by tips from federal airport security officials, according to Reuters.

The tips came from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which shared data on more than 31,000 travelers with ICE for possible immigration enforcement.

Reuters was unable to determine how many arrests took place at airports.

ICE and the TSA are both part of the US Department of Homeland Security. Historically, the agencies have shared information on national security threats, but last year they began focusing on routine immigration detentions as part of Trump's mass deportation campaign.

On the subject: ICE agents admitted they had a daily arrest quota and an app to track migrants.

Data on 31,000 travelers was collected as part of the Secure Flight program, launched by the TSA in 2007. It is designed to screen passenger information to identify individuals who may be on the US government's watch lists. According to the regulations defining its purpose, the program was conceived as a counterterrorism tool, not for finding immigration violators.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about TSA sharing passenger data with ICE agents, but said that under Trump, the Transportation Security Administration is "focused on finding solutions that improve the resilience, security, and efficiency of the entire system."

There is no data on arrests or the sharing of traveler information with ICE agents prior to Trump's current term.

US airports and immigration enforcement have been at the center of a political standoff over funding since mid-February, when Democrats refused to support additional funding for the Republican president's immigration campaign without reforms aimed at easing immigration policies.

This conflict blocked passage of the Department of Homeland Security funding bill, resulting in TSA employees missing at least two paychecks. After some TSA employees, left without pay, began taking sick leave, Trump deployed ICE agents to 15 airports in March to assist with security.

Democrats criticized the decision and called on the Trump administration to withdraw the agents. A group of more than 40 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, in a letter to the new head of the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, stated that ICE agents would "cause confusion and fear" if they remained at airports.

Several cases of travelers being detained by ICE agents at US airports have sparked strong reactions.

For example, they detained a college student flying from Boston to Texas for Thanksgiving in November, and they arrested a crying mother at San Francisco International Airport the day before ICE agents began deploying to airport terminals.

The Department of Homeland Security said final deportation orders had been issued against the men.

Reuters spoke to three immigration lawyers who said they were aware of cases of people without legal immigration status being arrested at airports.

Among them is an Irish family who had lived in the United States for over two decades. According to attorney Christina Canty, last summer, immigration authorities detained the parents in front of their children as they attempted to fly from Florida to New York after a vacation.

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According to Canty, the parents, who had already applied for permanent residence, were deported. They were forced to leave behind two young children, ages 7 and 10, along with their adult siblings.

In another case, a Chinese citizen facing a final deportation order and seeking permanent residence was detained by ICE at the Atlanta airport last year while en route to Philadelphia, according to one attorney.

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ICE officers brutally detained a woman at San Francisco Airport, all in front of her child.

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