The data is contained in an exclusive study Reuters. The publication notes that the number of arrests established by internal ICE documents is significantly higher than previously known cases.
The information comes from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which provided ICE with data on more than 31,000 travelers for possible immigration enforcement, the data showed.
“ICE and TSA are part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Historically, the agencies have shared information related to national security threats, but last year, as part of Trump’s mass deportation efforts, they began focusing on routine immigration arrests,” states Reuters.
Partisanship and immigrants
U.S. airports and immigration enforcement have been at the center of a partisan fight over funding since mid-February, when Democrats refused to support additional funds to tighten the Republican president’s immigration policies without reforms to reduce aggressive practices, the publication notes.
The standoff blocked passage of the DHS funding bill, causing TSA security officers to miss at least two full paychecks. After some unpaid TSA employees began taking sick days, Trump sent ICE officers to more than a dozen airports in March to help with security.
Democrats have criticized the ICE deployment and called on the Trump administration to pull them out. A group of more than 40 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives last week wrote in a letter to newly appointed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that ICE officers would “cause confusion and fear” if they were allowed to remain at airports.
Reuters does not provide an assessment of the situation, but recounts several specific instances of airport arrests where people who did not pose a threat to U.S. security (as the publication believes –LP note ) were harmed. Thus leading readers to the conclusion that the Democrats’ fears are well-founded.
