ICE arrests at US airports are happening more frequently, attorneys say. Here’s what we know

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests at US airports are raising alarm among attorneys who say they are happening more frequently, citing a series of incidents where passengers have been abruptly swept up by agents when they’re traveling.

The federal agency, which is charged with the arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants, remains under pressure to deliver on President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda. That includes meeting the administration’s goal of around 2,000 arrests a day.

Arrests at airports are part of a broader effort by ICE agents to use various enforcement tactics to increase arrests, including most recently, focusing on people with expired visas who are traveling.

“That’s the mousetrap. That’s the cheese,” he added, referring to people who are in the immigration process and being detained at airports. “If the new expectation is that if you have a pending application, you can’t travel … that would be very, very new.”

Senior Homeland Security officials made changes to their enforcement operations on the heels of two fatal shootings involving ICE officers this month. Both incidents, one in Houston and another in Maine, started when ICE initiated traffic stops. While arrests at airports are not a new strategy under the Trump administration, it’s one that lawyers and advocates say is increasingly happening.

“When you’re under pressure to ramp up arrests, it’s all about what is the fastest and easiest way to get people into custody,” said John Sandweg, former acting ICE director under the Obama administration.

There are a number of reasons agents may choose to conduct arrests at airports. The Department of Homeland Security already receives every passenger’s information before their flight through the Transportation Security Administration.

The terminal also provides a secure setting where agents know no one is armed, Sandweg said.

“It makes for an easy immigration arrest for ICE,” Sandweg said. “You can now take custody of that person in a secure environment. They come to you. You know exactly when and where they’re going to be. And because you’re getting them in a secure environment, you need less agents.”

In another statement to CNN, a Homeland Security spokesperson declined to confirm an uptick in ICE arrests at airports.

“For operational security reasons, we are not going to confirm the locations of our officers,” the spokesperson said, adding that the department has deported a total of nearly 1 million undocumented immigrants as of July 12.