By The Daily Wire (World News) | Created at 2026-08-06 16:35:44 | Updated at 2026-08-06 18:24:47
6 hours ago
Airlines are engaged in a tense battle with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the federal agency’s efforts to arrest more targets at airports.
As the Trump administration ramps up its mass deportation campaign, ICE officers have increasingly been seen making arrests at airports. It’s part of a new tactic to nab foreigners who have overstayed their visas.
Airline industry representatives met with Homeland Security officials late last month to share their concerns with the latest operations, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“Airlines have had constructive discussions with ICE and TSA to ensure if law-enforcement activity occurs at an airport, there are proper procedures and protocols in place to prioritize the safety and security of all involved,” a spokeswoman for Airlines for America said.
In March, the Association of Flight Attendants wrote to carriers about their concerns with ICE’s activities at airports across the country.
“The actions that federal enforcement authorities have taken in our workplaces have raised glaring workplace, safety, and legal concerns for flight attendants,” Sara Nelson, international president of the union, wrote in the letter reported by the Journal.
Nelson referenced reports of ICE agents accessing jet bridges without permission, including in one instance in which an agent boarded a flight in Minneapolis “in order to interrogate and threaten removal of a person who criticized their presence in the airport.”
In a statement to the outlet, the Department of Homeland Security said it’s “simply enforcing our nation’s laws and established policy.”
Officers have been told to attempt to make the airport arrests at security checkpoints, but they’ve increasingly been seen doing so at gates and ticket counters, according to the Journal.
In one instance in July, an airline declined ICE’s request for assistance in accessing a jet bridge to arrest a man traveling with his wife and children, the outlet reported. In the end, the family didn’t show up for the flight.
In another case, Southwest Airlines blocked an ICE officer who tried to board a flight in Dallas to make an arrest on July 25, the Journal reported, citing documents.
In what became a viral incident on social media, ICE arrested Chantal Alejandra Morales Rojas on July 20 while she attempted to board a Southwest flight from Denver to Oakland, according to 9News.
A GoFundMe for Morales Rojas said she has a valid work permit and a pending asylum application, the outlet reported.
ICE said she entered the United States on October 20, 2024, with a visa that expired on January 4, 2025. The agency added that having a pending case or work authorization doesn’t keep ICE from making an arrest.
An immigration judge subsequently granted her bond, according to 9News.
Southwest said it is committed to ensuring a safe travel experience, adding that it follows state and federal law when dealing with law enforcement. The airline said it implements policies “to ensure appropriate legal documentation is presented by law enforcement personnel before any information about customers is shared.”
Last week, ICE officers arrested a woman as she waited to board a JetBlue flight in Las Vegas because she overstayed her visa and had a final deportation order.
JetBlue said it doesn’t have a “program or partnership in place to identify or report customers based on immigration status to government agencies.”
