ICE has begun arresting foreign nationals with expired visas at US airports, including spouses of citizens and asylum seekers, a New York Times investigation reveals.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has started arresting foreign nationals with expired visas at airports across the country, including spouses of American citizens, according to an investigation by The New York Times.
The newspaper reported on Wednesday that the arrests, some carried out by plain-clothes officers at check-in counters and arrival gates, have taken place at no fewer than 15 airports in recent weeks. A handful of the encounters became public only after fellow passengers filmed them and shared the footage online.
Those targeted include skilled workers waiting on visa extensions, former exchange visitors and other migrants with pending immigration cases, the report said. The Times said it spoke to immigration lawyers representing more than 25 people from over a dozen countries who were recently detained at airports, and reviewed related Department of Homeland Security documents.
A DHS spokesperson defended the operations, saying the administration was working to ensure that people in the country illegally could not fly unless leaving to self-deport.
The crackdown forms part of a wider target set by ICE to make roughly 2,000 arrests a day as President Donald Trump’s administration pushes to remove undocumented migrants from the United States.
Among the cases highlighted by the Times was a Ugandan woman with sickle cell anaemia who was detained despite having an active asylum application. CNN separately reported that a woman was detained at an airport near Washington, DC, while travelling to Texas to be with family ahead of her father’s funeral. Her attorney, Joe Moravec, said she had entered the country legally and was pursuing an asylum claim. She is currently being held in Virginia.
The Times report did not specify whether the reviewed documents covered every nationality affected by the enforcement drive.
Separate DHS overstay figures for 2024 show that nearly 989 Nigerian nationals on student and exchange visitor visas remained in the US beyond their permitted stay, an overstay rate of 11.90 percent, one of the higher rates recorded among nationalities in the report. A further 6,917 Nigerians holding visitor visas overstayed, representing a 5.56 percent rate.
It remains unclear how many people have been arrested under the airport enforcement operations so far, or whether the practice will expand to more locations. Immigration lawyers involved in the reported cases are expected to challenge some of the detentions in court.
