Watchdog group sues for TSA data sharing agreement with ICE 

A nonprofit is suing the federal government for records surrounding a data sharing agreement between the Transportation Security Administration and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement that saw domestic travel data used for immigration enforcement.

Government watchdog group American Oversight filed suit against the agencies Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a day after acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told Congress that it was “absolutely within our authorities” to hand over passenger data to other agencies for immigration enforcement operations.

A New York Times report in December revealed that the data sharing partnership included the names and birth dates of passengers. According to the report, TSA sends ICE a list several times a week containing passenger data for upcoming flights, which ICE then checks against its own immigration records.

Under the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have dramatically expanded immigration enforcement efforts to areas – like airports and schools – that have not been traditionally targeted by past administrations. The data sharing program between TSA and ICE was reportedly used in the high-profile detention and deportation of 19-year-old college student Any Lucía López Belloza from Boston’s Logan Airport over Thanksgiving 2025. A court later found that Belloza was illegally deported to Honduras.

American Oversight filed Freedom of Information Act requests seeking to learn what other information was passed along as part of the agreement, claiming “the full scope of the collaboration—including what other pieces of data are being shared, and whether U.S. citizens have been swept up in any enforcement actions—has not been disclosed.”

The group claimed that after their initial requests were denied, TSA and ICE stopped responding after the nonprofit filed an appeal under FOIA law.

“As of the date of this Complaint, Defendant TSA has failed to notify…regarding American Oversight’s FOIA request, including the scope of responsive records Defendants intend to produce or withhold and the reasons for any withholdings,” the lawsuit states.

On Wednesday, Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill defended the data sharing agreement to Congress as both legal and appropriate under the national security mandate of DHS.

While the Privacy Act prevents or constrains agencies from sharing information across different departments, that law doesn’t apply to what TSA and ICE are doing. Both are part of the Department of Homeland Security, and in many instances can legally share data with other component agencies, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

McNeill made a similar argument when pressed by Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-NJ, to explain what legal authorities TSA was relying on to share the data. She later promised to produce “the exact statute” that DHS was citing.

“We are acting within our absolute authorities,” said McNeill. “We are part of the DHS, it was a department set up by Congress to ensure these agencies aren’t operating in silos, and that’s what we’re doing today to advance the national security mission of the department.”

McIver disputed that characterization, noting “there is no law that forbids undocumented [people] from flying domestically within the U.S.”

“TSA’s mission is to secure transportation, not to assist ICE with immigration enforcement,” she said.