TSA sharing data with ICE elicits concern

Eduardo Cuevas

USA TODAY

The deportation of a Guatemalan mother and daughter who were detained before boarding a flight raises new questions about how the Trump administration is using government databases for immigration enforcement.

The Transportation Security Administration reportedly notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement that Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and her 9-year-old daughter, both of whom had final removal orders, had a March22 domestic flight from San Francisco International Airport. That night, plainclothes ICE officers detained them at the California airport, seen in viral videos circulated on social media.

Immigrant rights groups say the detention of Lopez-Jimenez, 41, and her daughter marks a new phase in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts, which is relying in part on an array of government data to identify undocumented people it deems able to be deported. Critics worry the federal government is building surveillance systems that know too much about everyday people.

'We have moved into an era in which the government can have total knowledge of every single individual,' said U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-California, who represents Contra Costa County where Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter lived. He pointed to the administration’s plans to use IRS tax data, along with Medicaid and Medicare rolls, to identify undocumented people.

'They’re using those databases to identify individuals for, in this case, apprehension and to be deported, regardless of what they have done in the United States,' Garamendi said.

Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter have no criminal histories, Garamendi added. Under prior presidential administrations, they were considered low priorities for deportation.

However, in the administration’s promise to deport millions of people, the mother and daughter appearing on a flight made them subject to quick removal.

A statement by the Department of Homeland Security, which includes TSA and ICE, said Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter had an outstanding final removal order from an immigration judge issued in 2019.

Garamendi said Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter lived in the San Francisco area for several years after they crossed the border illegally in 2018, when Lopez-Jimenez’s daughter was an infant. They had an upcoming flight to Miami to visit family, Garamendi said.

San Francisco police, which has a large presence at the airport, responded to a 911 call about 10 p.m. March22, agency spokeswoman Eve Laokwansathitaya said in an email, adding city police weren’t involved with federal immigration officials. Video showed police forming a barrier between plainclothes ICE officers and surrounding crowds.

The San Francisco Police Department doesn’t assist in civil immigration enforcement, Laokwansathitaya said, citing city charter, state law and department policies.

DHS said the video, showing Lopez-Jimenez crying and pleading for help as ICE officers detained her, came as a result of Lopez-Jimenez attempting to flee and resist law enforcement.

ICE said Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter were removed by a repatriation flight from Harlingen, Texas, on March24. Now in Guatemala, Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter are safe with family, according to Garamendi’s office.

The New York Times reported TSA flagged to ICE that Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter were on a flight passenger list.

'This is nothing new,' a DHS statement to USA TODAY said, adding officials reversed a Biden-era policy allowing undocumented immigrants to fly around the country without identification, though it didn’t specify the policy.

'Under President Trump, TSA and DHS will no longer tolerate this,' DHS’ statement said. '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.'

The agency didn’t respond to emailed questions.

In December, citing former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin , the New York Times reported that TSA was providing ICE with lists of passengers who had deportation orders. USA TODAY also reported federal contractors were building a $30million system to track suspected gang members and undocumented immigrants, as well as buying access to a system that tracks passengers on virtually every U.S.-based airline flight.

John Pistole, a former TSA administrator and FBI deputy director, said airports have rarely been prime enforcement areas for ICE.

'TSA, of course, is there for aviation security, not for immigration enforcement,' he said. 'ICE is there for immigration enforcement, not aviation security. So can roles overlap? Yes. Is it optimal? I don’t think so.'

To fly domestic, people need a boarding pass and valid form of identification, which can be an unexpired passport even from someone’s origin country, according to Bill Ong Hing, a University of San Francisco professor of law and migration studies and founding director of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic.

People must also pass through TSA screening to ensure they’re safe to travel. While immigration enforcement at airports has occurred, Hing said, it’s been random and infrequent.

Hing said the mother and daughter’s deportation showed the Trump administration was thinking more broadly to find people who can be deported.

TSA didn’t respond to email requests for comment. An ICE spokesperson said the incident happened prior to ICE officers being deployed to airports during the partial government shutdown to bolster TSA efforts.

Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, both California Democrats, sent DHS an inquiry into data-sharing between agencies. In a letter dated March30, Padilla and Schiff called the practice 'alarming' and requested more information, including TSA’s policy to contact ICE to detain travelers.

The administration has sought to use IRS tax data to identify people in the country it seeks to detain and deport.