ICE arrested over 800 people after tips from TSA, data shows
FILE-Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents are seen working as passengers wait in long lines outside of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, United States on March 23, 2026. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Ge
More than 800 people have been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers based on leads from the Transportation Security Administration.
Reuters obtained ICE internal data revealing that the TSA provided 31,000 travelers for potential immigration enforcement. This data spans the start of Donald Trump's presidency through February 2026.
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The news outlet noted that it could not determine how many arrests took place inside airports, although the TSA tips were useful in figuring out when an individual would be traveling.
How does the TSA collect traveler records?
Dig deeper:
Reuters reported that the 31,000 traveler records were collected by TSA’s Secure Flight Program, established in 2007, to permit the federal airport security agency to examine passenger information for individuals who may be on the federal government’s watch lists. The program was planned as a counterterrorism effort, not to find immigration offenders.
ICE airport arrests reported
Local perspective:
Several reports of ICE agents arresting air travelers in domestic airports have sparked criticism from some.
Last year, ICE officers detained a college student who was traveling from Boston to Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving in November, according to Reuters.
RELATED: Trump says he'll put ICE agents at airport security if funding bill isn’t passed
In March 2026, a trending video circulated online showing ICE officers arresting two people, including a crying woman, at San Francisco International Airport.
FOX News reported that the video showed Angelina Lopez-Jimenez on her knees, crying, as two immigration agents were handcuffing her in front of her daughter.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security defended both arrests and claimed they were subject to final orders of removal, according to Reuters.
Separately, Reuters also spoke with three immigration lawyers who explained that they were familiar with cases of individuals without legal immigration status being arrested in U.S. airports.
One of the attorneys told Reuters that these cases included an Irish couple who lived in America for over 20 years and were detained in 2025 by immigration authorities in front of their kids when they attempted to travel from Florida to New York after a vacation.
RELATED: Trump says he'll put ICE agents at airport security if funding bill isn’t passed
Citing the lawyer, Reuters reported that the parents who had pending applications for permanent residency were deported and left their two children, ages 7 and 10, with adult siblings in the U.S.
And in a different case, a Chinese woman who had a final order of removal seeking permanent residence in the U.S. was detained by ICE agents in 2025 at the Atlanta airport en route to Philadelphia.
ICE agents at airports
The backstory:
President Donald Trump said in March that he would use federal immigration officers to help field long airport security lines unless Democrats agreed on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats pledged to oppose funding for DHS unless reforms were made in the wake of an immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to the deadly shootings of two protesters.
The presence of ICE agents at airports, Trump said, would help assist the TSA, which is facing a shortage and callout of workers amid the partial shutdown. ICE is continuing to be funded through the shutdown.
Democrats have condemned the ICE agents deployment at airports and called on the Trump administration to remove them. Reuters reported that a group of over 40 Democrats in the House of Representatives wrote in a letter to new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin last week that ICE officers "will cause confusion and fear" if allowed to remain in airports.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by Reuters, which obtained ICE internal data for their report, previous FOX Local reporting, FOX News, and The New York Times. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.