Federal immigration agents filmed making airport arrests as Trump calls in ICE to ease security line delays

Federal migration officers person been seen astatine respective U.S. airports connected Monday aft the Trump medication said it would deploy ICE agents to easiness information lines amid an ongoing partial authorities shutdown.

The shutdown, which began connected February 14, has resulted successful agelong lines astatine airdrome pre-gate information checkpoints, typically handled by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents. Since the shutdown, hundreds of thousands of agents nether the Department of Homeland Security, including TSA, person worked without wage since Congress failed to walk caller funding. 

Democrats are calling for changes to national migration operations aft reports of maltreatment by agents, including the sidesplitting of 2 U.S. citizens earlier this year.

In caller days, travelers person filmed lines with hold times estimated astatine respective hours. Trump borderline czar Tom Homan told CNN that ICE agents would beryllium deployed starting Monday to airports with the longest hold times. Homan said details of the program were inactive nether discussion.

Critics accidental having ICE agents astatine airports would increase tensions with travelers.

Federal agents person been seen making astatine slightest 1 apprehension astatine San Francisco International Airport connected Sunday night, according to eyewitness accounts. One video posted to TikTok shows unidentified, plain-clothed agents declining to place themselves arsenic they detain a person, including a child, past the information enactment astatine a terminal gate. A video posted to Reddit shows the agents detaining a idiosyncratic from different angle. TechCrunch has contacted the poster.

A spokesperson for ICE did not instantly instrumentality a petition for remark astir the arrest.

According to reporters with the Associated Press, ICE agents person besides been seen astatine Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The Guardian reports ICE was seen astatine airports successful Newark, New Orleans, and New York’s John F. Kennedy. CNN reports that Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Phoenix, and San Juan are among the airports wherever ICE has been deployed.

ICE is known to usage a wide assortment of tools to place and people individuals, including facial designation apps and phone-unlocking tools to interruption into people’s devices. ICE agents besides usage determination data, obtained from people’s telephone apps and games, to show people’s whereabouts.