The Hill: Democrats investigating TSA, ICE data sharing after San Francisco airport incident
By Ashleigh Fields
California Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla sent a letter Monday to top immigration officials, requesting more information on data sharing between the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a woman was arrested in front of her child at San Francisco International Airport last week.
“The reporting following this incident has been alarming. It indicates that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at the San Francisco International Airport contacted ICE officers after becoming aware of this individual’s case in immigration court and its posture,” Schiff and Padilla wrote in their letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting Director of ICE Todd M. Lyons.
The senators said the woman, Angelina Lopez-Jimenez, was not on a watchlist for the International Criminal Police Organization or terrorist organizations and had no criminal convictions that would lead to her arrest.
The two lawmakers asked Mullin and Lyons to detail TSA criteria for referrals to ICE and questioned if the two agencies have a “Memoranda of Understanding,” a “Memoranda of Agreement” or “Interagency Agreement” on arresting travelers at airports.
Schiff and Padilla also asked if ICE operates deportation flights from San Francisco International Airport and if Customs and Border Protection was sharing information with the TSA regarding travelers on domestic flights.
Lopez-Jimenez’s arrest occurred before ICE officers were deployed at airports across the country to help with low TSA staffing.
“The family has an outstanding final order of removal from an immigration judge since 2019,” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said in a previous statement to The Hill.
“While being escorted to the international terminal for processing, Lopez-Jimenez attempted to flee and resisted law enforcement officers. ICE is working as quickly as possible to repatriate the family unit to their home country of Guatemala,” the department added.
After her arrest, local authorities, including San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie (D), said they have no reason to believe there is broader federal immigration enforcement at the airport.
“Under our city’s longstanding policies, local law enforcement does not participate in federal civil immigration enforcement,” Lurie wrote last week in a post on social platform X.
“Those policies keep us safe and will not change as long as I’m mayor,” he continued.
San Francisco International Airport is the largest in the U.S. that outsources security screening to private contractors in lieu of TSA employees, according to its website. All security procedures are managed and supervised by TSA staff, while the screeners are employed by a private company called Covenant Aviation Security.
“For decades, ICE has conducted operations at airports nationwide when information or leads indicate that an individual of interest may be traveling via commercial air. For the safety of our law enforcement, we do not disclose operational details while they are underway,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement pertaining to Smith and Padilla’s investigation.
“This is nothing new… 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,” the spokesperson added.
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