Federal immigration agents have arrested multiple travelers at airports across the country this month, detaining them at gates, on jet bridges, and near terminal shops, as the Trump administration pushes toward its goal of 2,000 arrests per day.
At least six people were detained at airports in Las Vegas, Nashville, Denver, San Francisco, the Washington, D.C. area, and Chicago during a ten-day stretch in July 2026, CNN reported. Immigration attorneys say the tactic marks a sharp departure from prior enforcement norms, and the incidents have drawn public attention, in one case, onlookers physically intervened to stop an arrest in progress.
The Department of Homeland Security has not confirmed an official increase in airport enforcement. A DHS spokesperson told CNN the 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." DHS said it had deported nearly one million illegal immigrants as of July 12.
The arrests followed a pattern. ICE agents, often in plain clothes, positioned themselves at gates, jet bridges, or terminal corridors. The TSA provides DHS with every passenger's information before a flight, giving agents advance knowledge of exactly when and where a target will appear.
John Sandweg, a former acting ICE director under the Obama administration, explained the tactical logic to CNN:
"It makes for an easy immigration arrest for ICE. You can now take custody of that person in a secure environment. They come to you. You know exactly when and where they're going to be. And because you're getting them in a secure environment, you need less agents."
Sandweg added that the pressure to meet arrest targets drives agents toward the fastest methods available. Jeff Joseph, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, put it more bluntly: "That's the mousetrap. That's the cheese."
Joseph told CNN that enforcement at airports is unprecedented in his experience. "Not that an airport is a sacred place, but for sure, enforcement at airports is nothing we've ever seen, neither is cooperation between TSA and ICE," he said.
For years, illegal immigrants with expired visas moved freely through domestic airports. That arrangement reflected a policy choice, not a legal requirement. The Trump administration has now reversed it. Whether critics find the new approach alarming or not, the underlying facts are straightforward: these individuals overstayed their visas, and DHS acted on that information.
The administration's broader enforcement posture has extended well beyond airports. ICE has deported foreign nationals after decade-long visa overstays and stepped up operations in cities that have resisted cooperation with federal authorities.
The first public incident came on July 13 at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. ICE agents attempted to arrest Phu Nguyen, a 57-year-old Australian citizen born in Vietnam whose two-year visa had expired in 2015. Onlookers confronted the agents, and ICE's Los Angeles field office later posted on X that a "crowd of anti-ICE agitators surrounded officers." Agents stopped the arrest "to de-escalate the situation and for officer safety," leaving Nguyen partially handcuffed.
Las Vegas police arrived, removed the handcuff, and released Nguyen after finding no outstanding warrants. The reprieve lasted less than 24 hours. DHS confirmed agents took Nguyen into custody the next day at Los Angeles International Airport.
"Nguyen refused to depart in violation of our nation's laws," DHS said in a statement. "He will receive full due process and remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings." Clark County's Department of Aviation, which operates the Las Vegas airport, acknowledged the incident "may raise questions and concerns among the traveling public" but said it works closely with federal law enforcement partners.
Nguyen's visa had been expired for more than a decade. Whatever sympathy the scene in Las Vegas generated, the legal question is narrow: he was in the country unlawfully, and DHS acted on it.
On the same day Nguyen was re-arrested in Los Angeles, ICE detained Lorenzo Thompson at Nashville International Airport. Thompson, a Jamaican citizen, worked as a Southwest Airlines flight attendant. DHS said he entered the U.S. on April 17, 2021, with a six-month visa and overstayed.
"Against our nation's laws, he overstayed his visa and failed to depart," DHS stated. "He will remain in ICE custody pending his immigration proceedings." Thompson remains in federal custody.
The Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents Southwest flight attendants, posted a statement on Facebook pledging support: "Every member deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, and we are committed to ensuring this member and their family know they are not alone during this difficult time."
Southwest Airlines said it "has provided guidance to employees to help ensure appropriate legal documentation is presented by law enforcement agencies prior to interactions in the gate areas" and that the airline follows applicable laws. The statement stopped short of criticizing the arrest itself.
Thompson's case raises a question the immigration system has long avoided answering honestly: how does someone with an expired visa pass repeated employment checks and work for a major airline for years without triggering enforcement? The failure is systemic, and it predates this administration. ICE has also arrested foreign nationals for violations that went undetected for years, including cases involving illegal voting.
The Denver incident on July 20 drew the sharpest legal dispute. ICE agents arrested Chantal Alejandra Morales Rojas, an Ecuadorian citizen, on a jet bridge at Denver International Airport as she tried to board a Southwest Airlines flight. DHS said her visa had expired on January 4, 2025.
Her attorneys contested the arrest in court. In a written statement, they said Morales Rojas entered the country lawfully in January 2023 with legal status to work as an au pair, filed an application to stay, received work authorization from DHS, and had a pending application under review. They said she had no criminal history and had "lived openly in the United States with the government's knowledge of her pending case" for more than three years, passing repeated background checks.
DHS pushed back directly: "A pending application and work authorization does NOT confer any type of legal status in the United States."
A friend traveling with Morales Rojas described the arrest to CNN. "These two huge guys rushed in behind us... and someone slammed the door behind us," the friend said. She told CNN she yelled "ICE is here, help us!" to other passengers at the gate.
Morales Rojas' attorneys challenged her detention in court, and she is set to be released on bond. Joseph, the immigration lawyers' association president, flagged the broader implications: "If the new expectation is that if you have a pending application, you can't travel... that would be very, very new."
That question matters. DHS issued Morales Rojas work authorization while her application sat in the queue. Then a different arm of DHS arrested her for lacking legal status. Both actions came from the same department. If having a pending application and government-issued work papers does not protect someone from arrest at an airport gate, applicants across the country need to know that, clearly and in advance, not on a jet bridge.
Two days later, on July 22, ICE agents arrested Iryna Gorb near gate B7 at San Francisco International Airport. DHS said Gorb, a Ukrainian national from Kharkiv, had overstayed a visa that expired in 2011, making her unlawfully present in the country for roughly 15 years.
Richmond, California Councilwoman Doria Robinson was waiting for a flight nearby. She told CNN she heard a woman screaming "please help me," turned around, and saw two men in plain clothes grab the woman in front of an airport shop. Robinson said she did not see any law enforcement identification. She began recording video and posted it to Facebook.
DHS said Gorb "tried to flee and resisted arrest." She remains in custody. California State Sen. Scott Wiener issued a public statement calling the arrest an attempt to "deport her to Ukraine, a war zone currently being invaded and bombed by Putin." A GoFundMe fundraiser described Gorb's family home in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, roughly 19 miles from the Russian border, as having been "shelled and destroyed."
Gorb's situation is genuinely difficult. Kharkiv has been under sustained Russian bombardment. But her visa expired in 2011. She spent 15 years in the United States without legal status. The war in Ukraine began in 2022. For more than a decade before the first Russian shell hit Kharkiv, Gorb was already here unlawfully. Courts have long recognized humanitarian concerns as a factor in removal proceedings, and Gorb will have the opportunity to raise them. But a 15-year overstay is not a technicality.
Federal enforcement operations under the Trump administration have drawn fierce resistance from some local officials and judges. In one recent case, a federal judge released a convicted hijacker from ICE custody, illustrating the tension between the judiciary and immigration enforcement.
CNN also reported two additional airport detentions this month. Attorney Joe Moravec told the network that one of his clients, a woman in the asylum process who had entered the U.S. legally, was detained at a Washington, D.C.-area airport while traveling home to Texas for her father's funeral. She is now being held in Virginia. Moravec described a second client detained at a Chicago airport. Neither client was publicly identified.
DHS declined to confirm the specific airports involved. "For operational security reasons, we are not going to confirm the locations of our officers," the spokesperson said.
The administration has also signaled broader enforcement priorities beyond airports. Tom Homan has warned that ICE surges are headed for sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The airport arrests also reflect a tactical recalculation inside DHS. CNN reported that senior Homeland Security officials made changes to enforcement operations this month after two fatal shootings involving ICE officers, one in Houston and one in Maine. Both shootings began when ICE agents initiated traffic stops. Airports, by contrast, offer a controlled, secure environment where agents face far less physical risk.
That context reframes the criticism. Attorneys and advocates have described airport arrests as heavy-handed. But from DHS's perspective, airports are safer for officers and less likely to produce the kind of confrontations that turned deadly on the road. Two agents are dead. The shift to secure environments is a rational operational response, not an escalation for its own sake.
Large-scale federal enforcement operations have become a hallmark of the administration's approach. A recent FBI-led sweep in Chicago netted 305 arrests and recovered 24 missing children, demonstrating the scale at which federal law enforcement is now operating.
Immigration attorneys will continue to challenge individual arrests, and some cases, particularly those involving pending applications or asylum claims, will test the legal boundaries of the new enforcement posture. Courts will sort out whether DHS can arrest someone it simultaneously authorized to work. That is a legitimate question, and it deserves a clear answer.
But the broader pattern is not complicated. Every person arrested at an airport this month was in the country on an expired visa. The law says they are not supposed to be here. For decades, the federal government chose not to enforce that law at airports. Now it has chosen differently. The people who spent years ignoring visa overstays do not get to act surprised when someone finally enforces the rules.
