United States (U.S) federal immigration authorities have begun to arrest foreign nationals who are deemed visa overstayers at airports.
Reports emerging on Thursday revealed that the U.S has expanded immigration enforcement operations directly into domestic airport terminals across the country.
U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now working in tandem with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to arrest visa overstayers at airports.
It was gathered that there are now officers stationed at airport check-in counters and departure gates nationwide to identify, detain, and process individuals whose legal stay in the country has expired in at least 15 airports in recent weeks.
Reports revealed that those targeted include spouses of U.S citizens, skilled foreign workers awaiting visa extensions, former exchange visitors, and other migrants with pending immigration applications.
Previously, the programme focused mainly on individuals with outstanding deportation orders.
However, internal U.S. Department of Homeland Security documents indicated it now also covers people whose visas have expired, even if they have pending applications to remain in the country.
Hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals overstay U.S. visas each year.
Many remain in legal limbo while awaiting decisions on visa extensions, green card applications or other immigration benefits, often holding valid work permits during the process.
In the past, such individuals were generally not prioritised for deportation unless they had committed criminal offences.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security defended the policy, saying the administration 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 formally been expanded.
According to the report, the White House has increased pressure on ICE to raise immigration arrests nationwide, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin reportedly setting a target of about 2,000 immigration arrests daily.
