Immigration attorneys report that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has significantly broadened who it arrests at American airports. What began as an effort focused on people with final removal orders now reaches foreign nationals whose visas have expired — including many with active green card or work-permit applications pending and, in some cases, valid employment authorization documents in hand.
The enforcement activity has been documented at at least 15 airports in recent weeks, according to reporting by CNN, The Washington Post, and Forbes. Officers have detained travelers at check-in counters, at boarding gates, and in arrival terminals. Those arrested reportedly include visa overstayers married to U.S. citizens, skilled foreign workers awaiting extension decisions, and former exchange visitors with pending applications before USCIS.
The mechanism behind the arrests is a data-sharing arrangement between the Transportation Security Administration and ICE that began in May 2025. Under that arrangement, airline and TSA screening data is used to flag individual travelers for ICE attention. It was originally described as a way to identify people with outstanding removal orders. The expansion to visa overstays — a civil status violation that historically did not trigger detention absent a criminal record — represents a substantial change in who is exposed at the airport.
That distinction is what makes this development consequential for otherwise low-risk applicants. A person who overstayed an earlier status but has since filed for adjustment of status, or who is working on a properly issued EAD while an extension is pending, would not previously have expected an airport encounter to end in detention. Attorneys quoted in the coverage describe this as a meaningful widening of the enforcement net, and note that a pending application does not by itself insulate a traveler from arrest.
Practically, foreign nationals with any gap or irregularity in their status history should think carefully before domestic air travel and should carry documentation of their pending filings — receipt notices, current EADs, advance parole where applicable, and counsel’s contact information. Anyone uncertain whether a past overstay has been cured by a subsequent filing should get that assessed before booking. The safest posture right now is to resolve status questions on paper before testing them at a TSA checkpoint.
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