U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 800 people following tips shared by federal airport security officials from the start of Donald Trump’s presidency through February 2026, internal ICE data reviewed by Reuters show, a figure far above what was previously publicly known.
The leads came from the Transportation Security Administration, which supplied ICE with records on more than 31,000 travelers for possible immigration enforcement, the data showed.
Reuters could not determine how many arrests took place inside airports, although the TSA tips would mainly be useful in determining when a person would be traveling.
ICE and TSA are part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The agencies have historically shared information related to national security threats, but they began focusing on routine immigration arrests last year as part of Trump’s mass deportation effort.
TSA PROGRAM WAS DESIGNED TO COUNTER TERRORISM
The 31,000 traveler records were gathered by TSA’s Secure Flight Program, which was created in 2007 to allow the agency to review passenger information for people who may be on U.S. government watchlists. The program was intended as a counter-terrorism measure, not to track down immigration offenders, according to the regulation outlining, its purpose.
DHS did not respond to questions about TSA providing passenger information to ICE, but said that under Trump, TSA “is pursuing solutions that improve resiliency, security, and efficiency across our entire system.”
Figures for arrests and traveler records that TSA shared with ICE before Trump’s current term were unavailable.
U.S. airports and immigration enforcement have been at the center of a partisan funding fight since mid-February, when Democrats refused to support additional money for the Republican president’s immigration crackdown without reforms to scale back aggressive tactics.
The standoff blocked the passage of a bill to fund DHS, which caused TSA security officers to miss at least two full paychecks. After some unpaid TSA officers began calling in sick, Trump deployed ICE officers to more than a dozen airports in March to aid security efforts.
Democrats have criticized the deployment and called on the Trump administration to remove them. A group of more than 40 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives wrote in a letter to recently installed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin last week that ICE officers “will cause confusion and fear” if allowed to remain in airports.
REPORTS OF UNEXPECTED AIRPORT ARRESTS
Several cases of ICE officers arresting travelers in U.S. airports have sparked backlash.
ICE officers detained a college student traveling from Boston to Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving in November and arrested a sobbing mother at San Francisco International Airport the day before Trump’s airport deployment began.
DHS defended both arrests and said they were subject to final orders of removal.
Reuters spoke with three immigration attorneys who said they were familiar with cases of people without legal immigration status being arrested in airports.
