TSA Is Sharing Your Data With ICE. They Arrested a Mother at SFO.
The big picture: The Trump administration quietly built a data-sharing partnership between TSA and ICE last year, allowing immigration agents to flag passengers with deportation orders before they even get through security. On Sunday, a mother and her 9-year-old daughter were arrested at San Francisco International Airport after TSA tipped off ICE. Meanwhile, a federal court has allowed the administration to resume expedited deportations that can land people in unfamiliar countries with as little as six hours’ notice.
Why it matters: This is happening inside airports where TSA workers haven’t been paid in over a month and security lines stretch for hours. You have ICE agents who were supposedly deployed to help with the crisis instead making immigration arrests. Also the people being detained aren’t dangerous criminals, they’re mothers and children. And once arrested, the deportation process is so rushed that lawyers say they physically cannot prepare their cases in time.
The SFO arrest: The New York Times reported that TSA agents tipped off ICE before an arrest at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday night. Angelina Lopez-Jimenez, who had a deportation order since 2019, was detained alongside her 9-year-old daughter after being flagged on the flight list.
The data pipeline: Last year, the administration quietly created a partnership allowing ICE to check TSA air traveler lists for passengers with deportation orders, according to The New York Times. A DHS spokesperson was blunt about the intent, saying “The message to those in the country illegally is clear: The only reason you should be flying is to self-deport home.”
The criticism: Democratic officials have called data-sharing under this administration “omnipresent,” claiming it puts personal information at risk and bypasses due process. You also have former ICE officials warning that airport arrests “put more strain on the system” and could distract from actual security, while ICE’s increased presence at airports hasn’t made a significant dent in wait times.
Expedited deportations: A federal appeals court allowed the administration to resume expedited deportations earlier this month, overturning a lower court ruling that called them a due process violation. Under the policy, migrants can be sent to countries they have no connection to with as little as six hours’ notice.
The Somali targeting: Two Minnesota legal providers have filed a lawsuit claiming the Justice Department placed Somali nationals on a separate docket and scheduled hearings with almost no notice. Attorney Kelsey Hines says 97% of her Somali client cases have been rapidly advanced. Hearings scheduled for 2028 were moved up with as little as one month’s notice. She calculated that even working 12-hour days, seven days a week, she’d still be 7,000 hours short of the prep time needed.
Hines is calling it “an undeniably targeted policy that singles out one nationality, designed to rob them of the due process they are legally guaranteed.”
By the numbers:
6 — hours of notice before a migrant can be sent to an unfamiliar country
97% — of Hines’ Somali client cases rapidly advanced
7,000 — hours short of the prep time needed, even at 12-hour days, 7 days a week
9 — age of the child arrested at SFO alongside her mother
0 — significant improvement in airport wait times from ICE presence
The bottom line: TSA shares data with ICE. ICE arrests you at the airport in front of your kid. You get fast-tracked into a deportation so rushed your lawyer can’t prepare. You might end up in a country you’ve never been to with six hours’ warning. AND all of this is happening inside airports where the security lines haven’t gotten any shorter, the TSA workers still aren’t getting paid, and the ICE agents who were supposed to help are busy making arrests instead.
The New York Times | Reuters | CBS News
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It seems the administration is just doing whatever it can to find loopholes to subvert due process.