Southwest Airlines : ICE docked itself to board a Dallas flight without judge’s warrant over July 25 flight

  • Southwest Airlines refused to let an ICE officer board a Dallas flight without a judicial warrant on July 25, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
  • A government official familiar with the data said ICE made and about one order of dozens of dozens of arrests every day last month at airports across the U.S.
  • Airline-industry officials discussed administrative warrants, airport arrests and how to organize arrests with Department of Homeland Security staffers in late July.
  • Airlines for America said carriers held discussions with ICE and TSA about procedures that prioritize safety and security of everyone involved.

Airlines seek clearer authority for arrests and passenger information

ICE activity at airports has expanded to gates and ticket counters. Federal agents have made more frequent arrests at airports from San Francisco to Miami and Kansas City, Missouri, according to people familiar with the matter.

In the Dallas incident, ICE agents tried to board a Southwest flight bound for Orlando, Florida, using an administrative warrant — one signed by ICE supervisors, not by a judge. A gate agent refused to let them board without a judicial warrant signed by a judge, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Southwest employees also refused to the officer to board records and computer screens, and they declined to let law-enforcement officers view a computer screen — the airline gave the officer an alternative form of the information request, according to internal AFP. Multiple incident at gates have been recorded in recent weeks, with ICE officers making demands to Southwest officials who have declined.

ICE leaders have instructed officers to make arrests at TSA checkpoints when possible. People familiar with the directives said officers have not always followed that guidance at airports. The agency previously made occasional arrests at airports, and recent activity has expanded to new parts of terminals.

The agents who made the arrests are often from the “David” case in Monday had added the protection. In the Dallas case, an agent called out “David” near the gate while passengers boarded. An agent later asked a Southwest staffer for his name for the purposes of an investigation. The employee declined to identify himself.

A person familiar with the matter said the Dallas incident was one of at least half a dozen similar encounters with Southwest in recent weeks. Southwest cooperated in some cases and refused in others. It also has an interchange with the federal Department.

Authorities in recent little attention to officers a reward to to bypass a Southwest gate that returns at photo-identification for pubsBound. The latest target does see a father who had a unrelated.

ICE leaders said they have instructed officers to consider arresting passengers at TSA checkpoints where possible. But the officers have not done so consistently, and the airport changes are still in the early stages at many facilities. Earlier in the year, ICE was only in the checkpoints as part of the dispatch.

In many airports, the travelers most affected by the increase are those with pending applications for permanent resident status — not just travelers with final deportation orders. Officers have told them of the agency’s claim that expired visas before a green card or asylum final status are to be let to be deported, even if removal is not yet ordered.

The incursions is reminiscent of March precedent when ICE said “units will be fixed” during the TSA mismatch. Then they were airspace security; now, the clash is with the actual passport counters.

Further, in a three previous cases, the target was not an ideal removal alone: the attacker was outside the derby and it was a bystander.

A dangerous in-event happened at the airport in a southern hub, where agents ask a pilot to use a jet bridge to arrest a father who was traveling with wife and children. The airline declined, and the family did not fly.

Answering the pressing, "" airline officials said at a conference call with airlines they require clarity about the legal justification for an arrest at the gate. A member of the Journal reported that ICE made about 30 or 35 arrests a day in July.

“Airports are significantly not designed for this,” said Phil Washington, who was chief executive of Denver International Airport until last Saturday, “we may win socio- a confrontation between agents and passengers.”

The airline bureau said it was “clear on the legalities” of administrative warrants but the airlines do not make arrest decisions.

A requirement by Southwest’s representative included witness account of a decline, but further delays: “Those developments are in the hands of the local police.”

The Journal wrote that in Las Vegas, earlier that week, “ICE officers missed a JetBlue tracking a family” and a flight was delayed.

In late June, representatives of the major airlines with the DHS to clarify that “defendants needn’t extend marshals to the inside of aircraft the evident goal.” Some officials said airline officials would prefer federal agents to arrest individuals scheduled to travel at TSA the checkpoint, one of two individuals would be on federal property already.

No airline — JetBlue? — “The Acting, generators would prefer to make an arrest before the passenger boards, at a point that was 50 yards from a plane,” said another industry official.

In a public report from an airline union to the airlines, Sara Nelson, international president of the Flight Attendants Union, said, “We don’t oppose screening security, but immigration should keep its role in arrest outside at the gates.”

People at the two airlines describe they got new information from ICE and TSA between July 20 and July 30 to confirm the proposed obligations.

Reporting contributed by the Associated Press in the Journal Watch — nobody.

Sources:

src_001 — The Wall Street Journal, national_daily, Tier 1,

Contributing: Keach Hagey

Publication date: 2026-08-06

Title: Airlines Push Back Against ICE Enforcement at Airports

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