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Latin Times
Latin Times
Politics
Clara Espinoza

TSA Hands Your Flight Data to ICE — And It's Already Cost Hundreds of Travelers Their Freedom

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MARCH 28: An ICE agent stands alongside a long line of travelers waiting to pass through a TSA Checkpoint at the Philadelphia International Airport on March 28, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. TSA agents have worked without pay for over a month during a partial government shutdown. U.S. President Donald Trump deployed ICE agents to U.S. airports on Monday, and on Friday he issued an executive order instructing DHS to pay TSA agents. (Credit: Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)

MIAMI — Boarding a domestic flight now carries genuine legal risk for immigrants in the country's largest Latino hubs, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leans on traveler information the Transportation Security Administration collects to detain people at check-in counters, boarding gates and arrival concourses alike. Cases documented across California, Texas and Florida in recent weeks involve travelers holding pending asylum claims, valid work permits or no criminal record at all — a pattern immigration attorneys say has turned ordinary trips into legal minefields for entire communities.

How the data pipeline works

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