ICE Uses Flight Information to Prevent Migrants From Boarding
The United States allows ICE to access airline passenger data to locate and detain migrants with removal orders before they board flights.
Posted on 17/12/2025 at 17:37
- ICE uses flight information
- Migrants detained before boarding
- Passenger data sparks concern
The U.S. government has implemented a system that allows airline passenger data to be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The measure is intended to enable immigration agents to locate and detain migrants with active removal orders before they board a flight. The policy under which ICE uses flight passenger data has been in effect since March.
Under this agreement, ICE is granted access to precise information about the specific flight that a person subject to deportation is scheduled to take.
ICE Strengthens Air Deportations With Access to Airline Passenger Data
Immigration agents receive passenger information from TSA at airports.
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The mechanism allows airline passenger data to be shared directly with immigration authorities.
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With this information, agents can identify individuals who have active removal orders.
Access includes details about the specific flight the passenger intends to take.
The central objective is to carry out detentions before boarding and then proceed with deportation.
This strategy shifts immigration enforcement into a routine space such as air travel.
Traveling, a common activity for thousands of families, thus becomes a potential point of ICE intervention when ICE uses flight passenger data to enforce deportations.
Criticism From Migrant Rights Organizations
Trump administration shares names of all air travelers in the U.S. with ICE to identify deportable individuals.
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Organizations that defend migrant rights have strongly condemned this practice.
They argue that the system creates fear and intimidation within immigrant communities.
They also warn that it turns ordinary activities, such as traveling, into high-risk situations.
“No one should fear that a family trip could end in being handcuffed and deported,” said Murad Awawdeh.
Awawdeh is the president of the New York Immigration Coalition.
According to these organizations, the impact goes beyond individual cases.
The message sent to communities is that any movement can be monitored.
Warnings About Surveillance and Rights
Critics argue that the use of passenger data sends a message of constant surveillance.
They warn that this practice could set a dangerous precedent.
According to these voices, the erosion of rights begins with the most vulnerable groups.
Awawdeh cautions that the effect is not limited to the immigrant population.
“The erosion of immigrant rights is the signal that announces the erosion of all our rights,” he stated.
Organizations fear that normalizing this type of control will expand its scope in the future.
They insist that it reinforces a climate of widespread distrust and fear.
They also argue that it transforms civilian spaces into extensions of immigration enforcement.
The debate continues as the policy remains in effect and generates growing concern among civil rights advocates, particularly as ICE uses flight passenger data to carry out pre-boarding detentions.
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