TSA Sharing Passenger Data With ICE for Immigration Enforcement, Documents Show

Kansas City, MO, July 29, 2026 —

New documents revealed by American Oversight indicate that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been sharing personal information of airline passengers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for immigration enforcement activities. This practice reportedly began in May 2025.

The sharing of passenger data with ICE for immigration enforcement purposes appears to stand in contrast to previous statements made by a TSA official during congressional testimony. In that testimony, the official reportedly stated that passenger data was not being collected for immigration enforcement.

The agreement between the agencies permits the disclosure of information pertaining to noncitizens who may be in the United States with an expired visa or are otherwise not authorized to be in the country. The full scope of the data shared and the specific mechanisms of this sharing were not detailed in the summary.

American Oversight, a government watchdog group, obtained the documents through a public records request. The implications of this data sharing practice for passenger privacy and the accuracy of previous official statements are subjects of ongoing scrutiny. The specific dates and details surrounding the congressional testimony were not provided.

Further details regarding the timeline of the agreement, the types of passenger information exchanged, and the specific immigration enforcement actions undertaken by ICE using this data were not included in the provided summary. The TSA’s previous statements and the newly revealed documents present a developing situation regarding the use of passenger information collected by the agency.

Story summarized from the original created by Ariana Figueroa on missouriindependent.com, see more information here.

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