US begins arresting travellers with expired visas at airports, report says
United States immigration authorities have reportedly begun arresting foreign nationals with expired visas at airports across the country, marking a significant expansion of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.
According to a report by The New York Times, officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have detained travellers at check-in counters, boarding gates and arrival terminals in at least 15 airports in recent weeks.
The report said those affected include spouses of U.S. citizens, skilled foreign workers awaiting visa renewals, former exchange visitors and migrants with pending immigration applications.
Previously, the airport enforcement programme mainly targeted individuals with outstanding deportation orders. However, internal Department of Homeland Security documents reviewed by the newspaper indicate that enforcement has now been extended to include people whose visas have expired, even if they have pending applications to remain in the country.
Many foreign nationals remain legally in the United States while awaiting decisions on visa extensions, green card applications or asylum claims, often with valid work authorisation.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security defended the administration’s approach, saying it was committed to enforcing immigration laws.
“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 said.
The department, however, did not confirm whether the airport enforcement programme had officially been expanded.
According to the report, the White House has pushed ICE to increase immigration arrests nationwide, with a reported target of about 2,000 arrests daily.
Immigration lawyers told The New York Times that the new enforcement strategy has affected clients from more than a dozen countries, including individuals with pending asylum applications, work visa renewals and marriage-based permanent residency requests.
One of the reported cases involved a 27-year-old Ecuadorian woman who was detained while boarding a domestic flight despite having a pending immigration application and work authorisation. Another involved a Ugandan woman with sickle cell anaemia who was reportedly arrested while awaiting a decision on her asylum claim.
