Thedeportation of a Guatemalan mother and daughterwho were detained before boarding a flight raises new questions about how the Trump administration is using government databases for immigration enforcement.
The U.S. Transportation Safety Administrationreportedly notifiedImmigration and Customs Enforcement that Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and her 9-year-old daughter, both of whom had final removal orders, had an upcoming March 22 domestic flight from San Francisco International Airport. That night, plainclothes ICE officers detained them at the California airport, seen in viral videos circulated on social media.
Immigrant rights groups say the detention of Lopez-Jimenez, 41, and her daughter marks a new phase in PresidentDonald Trump's mass deportation efforts, which is relying in part on an array of government data to identify undocumented people it deems deportable. Critics worry the federal government is building surveillance systems that know too much about everyday people.
"We have moved into an era in which the government can have total knowledge of every single individual," said U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-California, who represents Contra Costa County where Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter lived. He pointed to the administration's plans touse IRS tax data, along withMedicaid and Medicare rolls, to identify undocumented people.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrol at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, March 23, 2026. Hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were ordered to deploy to airports to help fill TSA staffing gaps across the country." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
ICE agents appear at airports as TSA delays snarl check-in
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrol at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, March 23, 2026. Hundreds ofImmigration and Customs Enforcement agents were ordered to deploy to airportsto help fill TSA staffing gaps across the country.
"They're using those databases to identify individuals for, in this case, apprehension and to be deported, regardless of what they have done in the United States," Garamendi said.
Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter have no criminal histories, Garamendi added. Under prior presidential administrations, they were considered low priorities for deportation.
However, in the administration's promise to deport millions of people, the mother and daughter appearing on a flight made them subject to quick removal.
Why were mother and daughter detained at airport?
A statement by the Department of Homeland Security, which includes TSA and ICE, said Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter had an outstanding final removal order from an immigration judge issued in 2019.
Garamendi said Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for several years after they crossed the border illegally in 2018, when Lopez-Jimenez's daughter was an infant. The daughter attended local schools. They had an upcoming flight to Miami to visit family, Garamendi said.
San Francisco police, which has a large presence at the airport, responded to a 911 call at around 10 p.m., agency spokeswoman Eve Laokwansathitaya said in an email, adding local police weren't involved in the incident with federal immigration officials. Video showed police forming a barrier between plainclothes ICE officers and surrounding crowds.
The San Francisco Police Department doesn't assist in civil immigration enforcement, Laokwansathitaya said, citing city charter, state law and department policies.
DHS said the video, showing Lopez-Jimenez crying and pleading for help as ICE officers detained her, came as a result of Lopez-Jimenez attempting to flee and resist law enforcement.
ICE said Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter were removed by a repatriation flight from Harlingen, Texas, on March 24. Now in Guatemala, Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter are safe with family, according to Garamendi's office.
'Nothing new,' DHS says
TheNew York Times reportedTSA flagged to ICE that Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter were on a flight passenger list.
"This is nothing new," a DHS statement to USA TODAY said, adding officials reversed a Biden-era policy allowing undocumented immigrants to fly around the country without identification, though didn't specify the policy.
"Under President Trump, TSA and DHS will no longer tolerate this," DHS' statement said. "This administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport."
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The agency didn't respond to emailed questions.
In December,citing former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin,the Times reported that TSA was providing ICE with lists of passengers who had deportation orders.USA TODAY also reported federal contractorswere building a $30 million system to track suspected gang members and undocumented immigrants, as well as buying access to a system that tracks passengers on virtually every U.S.-based airline flight.
TSA immigration enforcement not 'optimal,' former administrator says
John Pistole, a former TSA administrator and FBI deputy director, said airports have rarely been prime enforcement areas for ICE.
"TSA, of course, is there for aviation security, not for immigration enforcement," he said. "ICE is there for immigration enforcement, not aviation security. So can roles overlap? Yes. Is it optimal? I don't think so."
To fly domestic, people need a boarding pass and valid form of identification, which can be an unexpired passport even from someone's origin country, according to Bill Ong Hing, a University of San Francisco professor of law and migration studies and founding director of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic.
People must also pass through TSA screening to ensure they're safe to travel. While immigration enforcement at airports has occurred, Hing said, it's been random and infrequent.
TSA didn't respond to email requests for comment. An ICE spokesperson said the incident happened prior toICE officers being deployed to airportsduring the partial government shutdown to bolster TSA efforts.
Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, both California Democrats, sent DHS an inquiry into data-sharing between agencies. In aletter dated March 30, Padilla and Schiff called the practice "alarming" and requested more information, including TSA's policy to contact ICE to detain travelers.
Warnings on data privacy, expanded surveillance
The second Trump administration has torn down guardrails between federal agencies, said Saira Hussain, a senior staff attorney with the San Francisco-based digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation. She citedElon Musk's Department of Government Efficiencypulling large swaths of data from on people in the United States early in the second Trump administration.
"You're collecting information for one purpose, and you're informing the public that this is what you're collecting it for," Hussain said. "It shouldn't be used for another purpose. All that is out the window now."
The administration has sought to use IRS tax data to identify people in the country it seeks to detain and deport. Undocumented people are encouraged file taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, partially as a pathway to citizenship in the future. In February, aMassachusetts federal court orderhalted the administration from using tax data for immigration enforcement for now.
Hing, the law professor, said the mother and daughter's deportation showed the Trump administration was thinking more broadly to find people who are deportable or undocumented.
"It's just another chapter in their efforts to continue to scare people, and they've been very successful striking fear in the citizen and noncitizen community," he said. "This is another one. Now it's in airports too, not just schools and neighborhoods."
Hing said he's unsure how in-depth ICE's information now is.
Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email atemcuevas1@usatoday.comor on Signal at emcuevas.01.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:TSA sharing passenger data with ICE raises privacy concerns