TSA is sending airline passenger lists to ICE multiple times a week. Every passenger gets screened for citizenship status, and this has been going on since March. U.S. immigration checks these lists against its own databases to identify people “subject to deportation and detention,” and then can send agents to airports. Everyone who flies is being checked, then people are being arrested and deported.
- TSA’s ‘Secure Flight’ prescreening program receives passenger identity and itinerary information from airlines to check against security watchlists. This was supposed to be a terrorism check for travel security.
- The “ICE matching” program repurposes an existing security screening program into an immigration-enforcement one.
This is a bulk surveillance effort dressed up as “targeting.” The input is everyone who flies. It’s not targeted. We’re all being checked, and the government hasn’t disclosed how many arrests it even yields for this.
To be sure, sharing airline passenger data between government agencies has already been happening. For its stated mission, data was transmitted with the Terrorist Screening Center for identity matching. And mission-creep extended this to certain law enforcement agencies for investigation and enforcement, and to public health authorities for communicable disease.
The name matching system is heavily error-prone, and the correction mechanism is weak. TSA owns the pipeline, airlines originate much of the data, ICE acts on the match, and travelers don’t have a place to go for error correction due to bureaucratic ping poing (especially when it’s politically convenient to emphasize arrests and downplay false positives).
And airports are a terrible place to debug identity disputes (detention first, sort later). At least Secure Flight has an opaque redress path, while the ICE process has no obvious traveler-focused, time-sensitive redress process. And it turns movement into a compliance lever.
Airport travel is becomes a choke point for detentions – no longer just transportation, but a compliance checkpoint for civil enforcement, re-engineering mobility into an enforcement tool. It seems like what logically follows is:
- Bulk data feed becomes normal
- Pressure to expand fields (to increase match quality and reduce embarrassment). “Names only” generates false positives. The obvious “fix” is to include more identifiers in data sharing.
- Then move to biometric.
- And expand sharing to more agencies. That means warrants and probation/parole sweeps, child support enforcement, tax debt collections, protest policing and “extremism” watchlists.
There slippery slope here isn’t today it’s immigrants, tomorrow it’s everyone for anything. It’s the sequence of building and sharing the travel roster, beefing it up to become more robust, and using it for more purposes. That’s a shift from the aviation security purpose to domestic movement screening.
Supporters would say that if someone has a valid final removal order, catching them at an airport is operationally efficient and avoids long fugitive searches. TSA already receives passenger information for security screening, this is just using existing data against people committing crimes.
One Mile at a Time expresses concern but says “I have to be balanced. We live in a democracy, and not in my imaginary dream world. Trump promised the largest mass deportation in history, and that’s what we’re getting.” No. This is bad. And even if deportations is your goal, this is a terrible way to do it.
What’s happening here is searching everyone to find targets, rather than focusing on targets. If you really do prioritize enforcement here, a better way to do it – instead of sharing a full travel roster – is
- ICE submits a narrowly scoped list
- TSA returns “hit/no-hit”
- Build in robust protections for accuracy. Require multi-factor match and human review before any airport action (minimize name-only errors). Publish auditing metrics: false positives, true positives, detentions, outcomes.
- Impose hard limits on use, prohibiting secondary purposes and any not authorized in statute.
- Keep enforcement out of checkpoints, to avoid distraction from aviation security purposes.
Turning aviation security into a catch-all monitoring system, and airports into law enforcement checkpoints, seems bad for both the real purpose of TSA and for civil liberties.
Good! I’m for sharing any info possible across agencies to find any person breaking the law or in violation of a legal order (like not paying child support). I’d gladly give up some of America’s “freedoms” to have a crime rate like Singapore. Yes they aggressively punish crime (death penalty for all drug dealers and prison (and caning) for many first offenses of property crime) but the result is an incredibly safe country. I’d take that in a minute over what we have now in the US
“The name matching system is heavily error-prone, and the correction mechanism is weak.” Since the current administration seems to be cleaning up after the last, this is another area for them to correct. This is a great idea. If one terrorist incident is thwarted and illegals are caught, it is worth it.
Most people have real ID’s and if certain states are issuing IDs improperly, then their IDs need to be declared invalid and people can travel with passports or join one of the government approved traveler programs.
Fascism continues to be exposed, drip by drip. Easier on the idiots that voted for it unknowingly.
Gary, I usually enjoy your posts. This one feels a little too political for me. When I read your blog, I think of helpful travel advice. If I want an ideologue who is going to tell me how to think I’ll turn on Fox News, CNN, or MSNOW. In any case, thank you for all the helpful advice! As a long time reader, the things you’ve posted have helped me, an active traveler with family who lives in multiple countries, greatly.
Untreated is fairer. If it was targeted you’d be screaming about profiling and discrimination.
This is not fascism. This is a reasonable law and order effort. You only need to worry if you’re here illegally or are some other kind of criminal.
Big Brother has been watching us more than a few years in more ways than most know. Every airplane in the air has full information of the crew and passengers in the Federal Data base.
I’m personally, not in favor of this, however if it keeps one possible miscreant off the plane then I’m ok.
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President Donald Trump doing precisely what he was elected to do… Clean up the disaster left behind by the Biden – Harris administration.
Thank you President Trump for “Making America Great Again”. Keep up the good work.
@Retired Gambler, Singapore is a safer country because Singaporeans have better character and are more honest than Americans in general (not a specific person).
Graffiti is a method to determine character. Italy is the worse. America is kind of bad in some areas. Taiwan and Japan are better. Singapore is good but have strict laws. Graffiti sprayers who are adults but young can be caned except women are exempt (but Singaporean women Graffiti daggers are rare)
Curious how many of the people commenting on this have traveled to countries where, if your visa or paperwork isn’t in order, you are not only detained, you may very well be turned back.
I’ve also said that the Gov’t screwed up following 911—if they really wanted security in airports, they should have turned it over to the military, like many countries have. Take it from someone who travels frequently to Israel—TSA is a joke amongst real airport security around the world.
If only the TSA could screen out the drunks, the crazies, the molesters, and the ones who just want to beat someone. Maybe they could also weed out the ones who forgot to wear real clothing too. But if this will help to weed out some of the criminals who managed to get in our Country illegally, then by all means get the job done.
And to those who are against weeding them out, maybe you would like to offer them a place in your home so you could support and reform them.
Great news president Trump is doing everything we elected him to do! Its sad that much of his time has to be spent undoing the mess that Obiden created. And of course there will be errors etc, but no system is perfect.
@Ray
Enforcing the law isn’t fascist, neither is arresting criminal invaders (illegals).
We want more of this and it should be a global standard.
Trump tries to overthrow the US government and it’s no big deal. Innocent American citizens are being rounded up by Americans in masks acting in behalf of a leader hell-bent in revenge.
Meanwhile, so called patriots say they’d happily dispose of the US constitution to live like people do in a country where chewing gum gets you caned. So, tell me, what the real threat in our society, a dude in a dress or “patriots” willing to toss our Constitution out the door to get what they want.
These are not patriot Americans, they’re power-hungry despots interested only in their power.
People will actually think there are TSA agents somewhere in a back room actually reading these “lists.” This is no different than countries with exit customs. If a custom officer sees you’ve overstayed your visa you are going to be pulled aside, questioned and likely banned from coming back to that country. And oh, probably miss your flight.
Great news keep it up! Eventually you’ll get rid of most breaking the law at that time! We won’t have to hear from the whining libs!
75 mil support it and Trump
Excellent, America will soon look like Putin’s Russia. But that’s no surprise since this sad, angry man is doing everything he can to run the country into the ground. And playing Neville Chamberlain with selling out the Ukraine shows where his heart is. Back in the 1950s the John Birch Society used to yell that there was an agent of Moscow somewhere in the White House. It turned out that even this bunch of crazies were right! Enjoy singing about being in a country where people are “brave” and “free” because those words will mean nothing. They might not come for you, but they will come for your friends, neighbors and relatives who think and speak for themselves.
Traveling abroad now it is routine to have your picture taken, fingerprints taken, (Budapest 11/25). If you commit a crime they can find you. There is nothing wrong with that. Christmas market in Strasburg, France, heavily armed police, crowd control, SWAT officers, military walking the markets with automatic weapons. In Germany, police now ride the trains looking for illegals. I’m willing to give up a little privacy to be safe, get criminals in jail, illegals out of the country. What is going on in this country is crazy! Australia has some of the toughest gun laws in the world and look what happened. Either Americans take back our country, or we won’t have a country.
@Parker & @drrichard & @1990 (who is strangely quiet) – President Trump did not try to overthrow the government. There were not any weapons involved and no soldiers were involved. However Nancy P is at fault because she turned down the extra soldiers (unless those were the troops that was going to overthrow the inauguration).
He is also not a dictator, he announces and documents his actions. He uses the courts and follows their decisions. decisions.
Come on men, he was elected both electorally and by popular vote. However, I appreciate your comments. Maybe it will help the lazy Republican voters come out and vote.
Well Michael, according to what an AI said to me, “Several current and former U.S. military personnel, including active-duty members and veterans, were involved in the January 6th Capitol riot, with estimates suggesting around one-fifth of those charged had a military background, including highly trained individuals wearing military-style gear and participating in the breach. While many were off-duty veterans, some active-duty service members, like three Marines, were also charged and faced consequences.” So they might not have been an organized group, but there certainly was a military component to this, not that it was needed when a mob was incited. As for weapons, it looks like what they picked up was about as nasty as some of the hand items from, say, the storming of the Bastille.
As for announcing his decisions, plenty of dictators have done that. “Mein Kampf” laid out exactly what a certain terrible man was thinking and planning. Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, all found ways to explain their murderous actions, and so on. And as for following courts, I think the repeated persecution of Letitia James, the refusal to release (in fact, their deportation) of people whom ICE has picked up and were ordered to be let go, and ignoring laws such as not tearing down part of the White House or putting his picture on National Park passes shows what he thinks of the judiciary.
@Michael Mainello – you believe what you’re told. I’ll believe what I saw with my own eyes and in a judicial system that convicted HUNDREDS of people for crimes associated with January 6th.
What you are saying is not only factually wrong…it is a flat-out lie perpetrated by a habitual liar who turns on everyone who disagrees with him and tries to have them railroaded through kangaroo courts. A man so drunk with power and bent on revenge he’ll refuse to feed children while spending over $150 million to play golf this year. Such outstanding morals.
But, hey…yeah…’Merica!
And the police state keeps growing to feed one man’s need for power and an insatiable ego.
@Derek – so you think Singaporeans are just born good? That’s not the way it works. Singapore works very hard at keeping its community law-abiding. Police are very well trained and respected. It’s not common for Singaporeans to spit on and curse at police, nor is is common to see police brutality. Prisons concentrate on rehabilitation and education, and they have a very low recidivism rate – around 20% vs the US (depending on the study) of up to 60%. Plus there are very harsh penalties (death) for crimes like drug trafficking and no second chances. There are other areas – but it’s a cohesive effort to have highly law-abiding country.
Well drrichard, the paranoia runs deep in you.
Why didn’t Nancy take the additional NG troops that were offered and ready for guarding the capitol?
Who opened the multi-ton door from the inside?
Why was their minimal damage to the capitol?
The persecution of Letitia James was the DOJ and her abuse of the mortgage industry. As an officer of the court I would think she should follow the laws.
Tearing down the east wing is no different than the taxpayer funded basketball courts and other renovations done by past Presidents.
ICE is doing a great job.
@Parker – The J6 courts which convicted folks on misdemeanor charges after refusing bail and keeping them in jail for years was legal. But the current duly elected President gets convictions thru a kangaroo court. OK, you are also delusional and lacking common sense.
How much did Obama and Biden spend on golf and vacations? Just curious because you seem to be watching so closely.
Whatever it takes to get these goddam illegals out of here.
What makes you think the government isn’t also running your blog through some sort of data mining operation? I think folks really need to be concerned about an over obtrusive government. Since I don’t trust the government, I’ll keep it simple – it doesn’t bother you until it happens to you. And, it’s happened to me and it cost more money than I had to prove the government was wrong.
@Parker
Jan 6th was American Bastille day.
And ice is detaining and deporting illegals. I wish they would deport citizens as well starting with people like you.
Thank you, @Parker and @drrichard for saying most of what I would’ve said. @Michael Mainello, you can try to sane-wash and intellectualize this, but, at its root is the bigotry that folks like @Walter Barry traffics on here and elsewhere. Beware, such aggressive overreach may be what the hate-frothing-base wants, but most Americans just wanted a better economy (and no amount of propaganda is gonna distract them from the reality that things are not getting better; in fact, with the tariffs, it’s clearly worse for most). 2026 is not looking good for your ‘team.’ Might wanna get to work on actually fixing things, not just boogeyman-ing.
Oh, and, Gary, you suggest a reasonable set of rules.
For those of us who frequently flew, domestic and international, all through The Plague years with stacks of signed dated documentation, while many easily walked in from Mexico with neither medical nor legal documents, cry us a river.
A passport seems to work for me.
I actually love this idea. If you voted Republican, you’ll be eligible to be declared a terrorist, and you can then be placed on a watch list which prevents you from traveling. It’ll make for fewer MAGA meltdowns in jet bridges.
Why would this be possible? Well, the Trump administration is setting the precedent through the NSPM-7 order, and by putting Democrats on terrorism watch lists.
Conservatives, take note: When you lose power next time (and you will, your ideas are not popular), the gloves are coming off, and you’re not going to like it. That is why we used to all agree that civil liberties were a good idea. That social contract has been eroding since 9/11, but you guys ripped it up, so buckle up.
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nspm-7-labels-common-beliefs