ICE at airports: What noncitizen travelers should know, according to immigration attorneys

Immigration attorneys urged noncitizens without permanent legal status to avoid travel after President Donald Trump announced plans to deploy U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement agents to airports nationwide beginning on Monday.

Trump said the agents will help Transportation Security Administration workers overrun by hourslong security lines during a partial government shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

TSA workers are considered essential employees, so they are expected to work without a paycheck.

Trump's plan to deploy ICE agents on Monday heightens existing fear for noncitizens who were already cautious of travel before this weekend's announcement, immigration attorneys told Newsday.

Ala Amoachi, an immigration attorney in East Islip, said she has been advising her clients to avoid travel for months.

"If you don’t have legal permanent resident status ... I would advise not to travel domestically at all," Amoachi said. "There’s always a risk if you don’t have legal status."

Amoachi recently received a call from a man seeking legal representation after he was arrested trying to board a domestic flight, she told Newsday.

About a third of all immigrants and more than 60% of immigrants without documentation avoided travel last year due to fear, according to a New York Times/KFF survey.

Advocacy groups are encouraging noncitizens without permanent legal status who decide to travel to consult an immigration attorney before doing so.

A month into the third U.S. government shutdown in the last six months, tens of thousands of TSA agents have worked nearly half the past 170 days without pay. More than 400 workers have quit since funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both TSA and ICE, expired on Feb. 14 in the partial shutdown.

Democrats in Congress are refusing to fund DHS after federal immigration agents shot and killed U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. The Democrats are demanding reforms to ICE operations nationwide.

Meanwhile, Republicans blocked a bill from Senate Democrats seeking to fund TSA and other select parts of DHS without expanding funding for ICE.

"On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job despite the fact that the Radical Left Democrats, who are only focused on protecting hard line criminals who have entered our Country illegally, are endangering the USA," Trump wrote on social media on Sunday.

Historically, ICE has not intervened in domestic travel. But last March, the TSA began sharing information with ICE about travelers suspected to have deportation orders, so immigration agents could make quick arrests at airports, The New York Times reported.

For those with scheduled domestic flights this week, immigration experts advise designating at least two people to have access to your documents and to your attorney’s contact information. One law firm with offices in Amityville and Brooklyn advises immigrants to share their flight information with those people before leaving, and to have their attorney’s information on hand in case of arrest.

George Terezakis, an immigration and criminal defense attorney in Mineola, said "airports are generally places with high enforcement."

"I generally tell my clients, don't travel unless you've had [an attorney] look at your immigration history, especially if you have any kind of prior arrests," Terezakis told Newsday.

Appearing on CNN on Sunday, White House border czar Tom Homan painted the ICE operation as an effort to shorten airport security lines.

"This is about helping TSA do their mission, and get the American public through that airport as quick as they can," Homan said.

In contrast, Trump wrote on social media on Saturday that he was deploying ICE to "do security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country."

Naresh Gehi, a longtime immigration attorney and founder of Gehi & Associates, told Newsday that those without immigration documentation should avoid domestic travel altogether.

For green card holders and visa holders, Gehi advised, "Exercise your right to remain silent ... Make it very clear that ‘I need a lawyer’ ... and if the ICE officer is asking you to sign something, make it very clear that ‘I want my attorney to look at it.’ ”

He added, "Be cooperative, be respectful, be nice."