ICE presence at Atlanta airport yields immigration arrests — and a false alarm
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has been part of a reported increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at airports across the country.
According to news reports, ICE has apprehended foreign nationals, and at least one U.S. citizen who was mistaken by agents for someone else, at the Atlanta airport.
Late last month, The New York Times published an investigation detailing how federal agents had begun arresting immigrants with expired visas as they traveled through various U.S. airports. Previously, ICE only targeted travelers with deportation orders, the Times reported.
People with expired visas lack legal status, even though it is possible for them to retain valid work permits. Many have pending applications for visa extensions or other forms of immigration relief, be it a green card or asylum.
Before the start of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, people who overstayed their visas and did not have criminal records were not generally prioritized for immigration enforcement.
Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-based immigration attorney, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that seven people hired his firm in the last two weeks after being arrested by ICE at the airport.
“This essentially never happened before Trump,” he said.
Officials with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about immigration agent activities at the Atlanta airport. The airport’s communications department also did not share information about immigration enforcement activities there. Neither ICE nor DHS would comment on whether more airport enforcement is happening now compared to before.
In an online fundraiser published earlier this month, the family of Daniel de Oro Uzcategui wrote that he had been detained by ICE agents at the airport on July 27.
“He had passed the TSA security check, he waited for his flight as normal, boarded the plane, and he was already in his seat when immigration agents entered the plane and asked for him to get off,” the family wrote.
Uzcategui, a Venezuelan national, is currently being detained by ICE at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, according to an agency database.
According to a Univision interview with a family member, Uzcategui was attempting to fly back to North Dakota, where he lives and works, after spending a brief vacation in Atlanta.
In a statement DHS provided the AJC, the agency confirmed that the Venezuelan immigrant entered the country legally with a visa in August 2023, but remained following the visa’s expiration in February 2024. In the family’s online post, they said Uzcategui has filed an application for political asylum, which would allow him to stay in the U.S. if a judge agrees that he faces persecution back home.
But “pending applications do not confer legal status,” DHS told the AJC. “All his claims will be heard by a Justice Department immigration judge, and he will receive full due process. He will remain in ICE custody pending his removal proceedings.”
On one occasion, ICE detained a U.S. citizen as he boarded a flight.
Cartersville resident John Phillips told WSB-TV that three ICE agents in tactical gear stopped him in the jet bridge as he attempted to board a plane for a work trip to Las Vegas. Agents pinned him to the wall and handcuffed him, he said.
Phillips told WSB-TV that he told the agents he is a U.S. citizen, though he did not resist arrest.
The agents let him go minutes later after informing him that he had been confused with an immigrant from England who shares his name and birthday.
“DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence,” a DHS statement to the AJC said. “We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement is trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability.
“In this instance, officers briefly encountered an individual at the airport during an ongoing enforcement effort. After additional verification determined the individual was not the person sought, officers promptly released him. The encounter occurred outside public view to minimize disruption to airport operations and protect the individual’s privacy. ICE takes seriously its responsibility to conduct enforcement activities professionally, lawfully, and with appropriate safeguards.”