HOUSTON \u2013 Immigration attorneys say domestic airports are becoming a new front for federal immigration enforcement as ICE expands arrests beyond travelers returning to the United States from abroad.<\/p>\n
The increased enforcement has already reached Houston.<\/p>\n
Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained 18-year-old Bellaire High School student Alim Garipov at William P. Hobby Airport as he prepared to board a domestic flight with relatives to visit colleges.<\/p>\n
ICE said Garipov entered the United States legally in 2022 but remained after his authorized stay expired. Garipov had a pending asylum application, but ICE said that application did not provide him with legal immigration status.<\/p>\n
Garipov was released after three days in custody.<\/p>\n
His case is among a growing number of airport encounters involving immigrants attempting to travel between U.S. cities.<\/p>\n
A Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News that ICE is now making between 20 and 40 arrests per day at airports nationwide. That official said the agency was making fewer than 10 airport arrests per day in May 2025.<\/p>\n
The increase comes as the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement nationwide, reporting approximately 51,000 ICE arrests in July.<\/p>\n
Video captures attempted ICE arrest at Las Vegas airport<\/p>\n
Video recorded July 13 at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas shows two plainclothes ICE agents attempting to detain a man inside Terminal 3.<\/p>\n
Bystanders confronted the agents as they tried to place the man in handcuffs. The agents eventually walked away, leaving him on the ground with a handcuff attached to one wrist.<\/p>\n
Las Vegas police said officers removed the handcuff after they arrived and could not find an outstanding warrant for the man. ICE arrested him the following day at Los Angeles International Airport.<\/p>\n
Attorneys call domestic airport enforcement a \u201cnew front\u201d<\/p>\n
Houston immigration attorney Ruby Powers said airport arrests historically involved Customs and Border Protection questioning people entering the United States, including travelers suspected of violating the terms of a visa or permanent residents with criminal cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now with attempting to travel domestically\u2014this is a whole new front that we hadn\u2019t seen before until just recently,\u201d Powers said.<\/p>\n
Powers believes airports provide ICE access to large numbers of travelers in one place as the agency works to increase its arrest totals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you go to a location like a federal building or a location where it\u2019s heavily trafficked with individuals coming through, it seems like the right place for them to find people,\u201d Powers said. \u201cIt must be a new tactic for them to capture more arrests to meet their goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Immigration attorney Leslie Kirby said the enforcement appears to be expanding beyond people with final deportation orders.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow they\u2019re targeting people who entered on visas and overstayed, or people who may have a pending application for a green card, or spouses of U.S. citizens,\u201d Kirby said.<\/p>\n
A family relationship, work permit or pending immigration application does not necessarily provide lawful immigration status or prevent ICE from making an arrest. However, attorneys argue that people with pending cases should be allowed to pursue those applications without being detained.<\/p>\n
How does ICE know who is traveling?<\/p>\n
The attorneys believe increased information-sharing among federal agencies allows ICE to identify travelers and determine their potential immigration status.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith just a name check, they\u2019re able to check some registers to find out what their status might be in the country,\u201d Powers said.<\/p>\n
An April Reuters investigation found that the Transportation Security Administration provided ICE with information on more than 31,000 travelers from the beginning of President Trump\u2019s second term through February 2026. Those referrals led to more than 800 ICE arrests.<\/p>\n
The information came through TSA\u2019s Secure Flight program, which collects identifying information from airline passengers and was created to screen travelers against government watchlists as a counterterrorism measure.<\/p>\n
Reuters could not determine how many of the resulting arrests physically occurred inside airports. TSA information would, however, help ICE determine when and where someone planned to travel.<\/p>\n
Attorneys advise immigrants to make a plan before traveling<\/p>\n
Powers said she is advising clients with pending asylum or green-card applications to exercise increased caution and consider limiting unnecessary travel.<\/p>\n
She also recommends that immigrants speak with a trusted attorney, organize their immigration documents and create a plan with relatives in case they are detained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone gets detained without an attorney or without a plan, it just makes everything infinitely more difficult and more expensive,\u201d Powers said. \u201cYou need to have an immigration plan, and the family needs to be on board.\u201d<\/p>\n
KPRC 2 asked ICE how many people have been arrested at Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports, whether the agency has increased its presence at those airports and how agents identify travelers for enforcement.<\/p>\n
This story will be updated when ICE responds.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Immigration attorneys say domestic airports are becoming a new front for federal immigration enforcement as ICE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[139725,56,58,57,139723,139726,139724],"class_list":["post-398024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-airport-immigration-raids","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-immigrant-travel-safety-tips","tag-immigration-attorneys-houston","tag-trump-administration-immigration-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}