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ICE arrests at airports
The Trump administration has intensified immigration enforcement in the United States by having ICE agents arrest people with expired visas at airports, including at check-in counters and boarding gates, with operations supported by the TSA.
“hasta alcanzar al menos 2.000 detenciones en todo el territorio nacional”
teleSUR said the arrests are directed at people with visas vencidas and have affected people of more than a dozen nationalities, as part of a strategy to duplicate the daily arrest figure to reach at least 2.000 detenciones across the national territory.
teleSUR also reported that ICE agents in civil clothes have arrested travelers at at least 15 terminales aéreas, and that the DHS justifies the detentions as a way to prevent people in irregular status from using domestic flights unless they are leaving voluntarily.
In one case described by teleSUR, the Ecuadorian Chantal Morales Rojas was arrested in Denver after requesting to remain in the country, and in another, the Ukrainian Iryna Gorb was under custody in San Francisco after 15 years of residence.
Targets expand beyond deportation
A report published July 29 by The New York Times, as described by India-West, said ICE officers have detained travelers at check-in counters, boarding gates and arrival terminals at at least 15 airports in recent weeks.
India-West said the arrests include visa overstayers who are spouses of U.S. citizens, skilled foreign workers awaiting visa extensions, former exchange visitors and other migrants with pending immigration applications, and that internal DHS documents reviewed by The New York Times indicate the operation now covers visa overstayers even with pending applications to remain.
The Washington Post reported that six immigration lawyers it interviewed said the targeting of people who entered the country legally but now have expired visas is a new development, and that the arrests are occurring at the three airports that serve the D.C. region.
The Washington Post also quoted a DHS spokesperson defending the policy, saying, "This administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport."
Leadership Newspapers similarly said a DHS spokesperson defended the approach with the same line, while also reporting that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin set a target of approximately 2,000 immigration arrests each day.
Numbers, detention totals, and cases
teleSUR said that, according to ICE’s own data, during julio federal agents arrested more than 43.100 inmigrantes and the total number of people in detention centers rose to more than 65.700.
“arrestaron a más 43.100 inmigrantes”
Leadership Newspapers reported that one of the cases included Chantal Morales Rojas, described as a 27-year-old Ecuadorian former au pair, who was detained while attempting to board a domestic flight after her visa expired despite having a pending immigration application and valid work authorisation.
Leadership Newspapers also described another case involving a Ugandan woman living with sickle cell anaemia who was reportedly detained even though she had an active asylum application, and it said immigration attorney Charles Kuck described the arrests as unprecedented in his decades of legal practice.
In the same reporting, teleSUR quoted UNAM researcher José Antonio Hernández Macías saying Trump has converted the immigration system into a coercive policy with a racist tint, expanding control directly in cities, workplaces and now airports.
teleSUR added that the intensification of these measures has generated cuestionamientos by activistas, abogados y defensores de derechos humanos for its repercussions on families and communities.
