The Trump administration has directed the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to share passenger name lists with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), expanding the federal government’s use of travel data for immigration enforcement.
Since March, TSA has been providing ICE with passenger information several times a week. ICE is able to cross-reference these names against its databases to identify individuals who may be subject to detention or deportation, according to reporting by The New York Times. Both TSA and ICE operate under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In response to inquiries, a DHS spokesperson said the data-sharing arrangement represents a return to earlier enforcement practices rather than a new policy shift.
“Back in February, Secretary 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 said in a statement provided to PEOPLE.
“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 routinely provide traveler information to TSA after flights are booked, primarily for screening against the Terrorist Screening Dataset and other national security systems.
According to a former TSA official cited by The New York Times, the agency had previously avoided involvement in immigration enforcement or domestic criminal investigations.
The scope of arrests linked to the TSA-ICE data sharing remains unclear. However, The New York Times reported that the arrest and deportation of a college student, Any Lucía López Belloza, appears to have resulted from the program.
López Belloza, 19, was detained at Boston’s Logan Airport on November 20 and deported to Honduras. A freshman at Babson College, she had lived in the United States since the age of seven and was reportedly unaware that she was subject to deportation.
In a separate case weeks earlier, Marta Brizeyda Renderos Leiva, a woman from El Salvador, was arrested at Salt Lake City International Airport.
Both arrests were flagged by the Pacific Enforcement Response Center, a California-based ICE unit that coordinates immigration enforcement actions nationwide, according to the report.
The TSA-ICE collaboration follows broader efforts by the Trump administration to access data held by other federal agencies to support immigration enforcement.
Earlier this year, DHS reached an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to share tax data collected from undocumented immigrants. That proposal, however, was blocked by a federal court in November.
The expanded use of federal databases underscores the administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement, particularly in domestic travel and public systems traditionally separate from immigration policing.
This article was first published on People
