Adnkronos International, Rome
(TNS)

The United States is intensifying pressure to capture and deport illegal migrants with raids in airports and even directly inside immigration courts. The migrant crisis in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, has brought the issue of immigration back to the center of the White House agenda, with President Donald Trump not holding back in attacking Spain and Europe for their handling of the situation.

For the White House occupant, it would be an invasion, a catastrophe: “The same thing will happen to us if Republicans are not elected, only it will be worse. On a much larger scale and much easier to get entangled in,” he had said during a cabinet meeting. The president assures that, unlike Europe, American borders have recorded zero arrivals since the beginning of his presidency, thanks to his tough efforts to curb arrivals and deport immigrants already present in the US. The reality is somewhat different, although there has been a drastic drop in arrivals: in 2025, encounters with migrants along the border with Mexico totaled 237,538, a significantly lower number compared to the 1.5 million recorded in fiscal year 2024. In 2026, crossings decreased further, often falling below 10,000 encounters per month. In July, for example, the southern border recorded a new historic low for migrant encounters: the U.S. Border Patrol recorded an average of just 148 arrests per day along the entire southwestern border, a figure corresponding to approximately 4,600 total encounters at the border during the month. This is a significant drop even compared to the low levels recorded in May and June 2026.

However, according to Homero Lopez, an immigration judge during the Biden-Harris administration, clarification is needed on Trump's "zero arrivals" claim: "Zero releases do not mean zero crossings: when Trump, in the last cabinet meeting, stated that the number of incoming immigrants was 'zero,' the situation is not quite like that," Lopez explains to Adnkronos. "CBP and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have clarified that this data referred to 14 consecutive months without any releases. Why? A policy change: due to stricter border controls, migrants attempting to cross the border illegally are no longer released into the United States pending court hearings (a practice known as 'catch and release'), explains the former judge and immigration lawyer. "Now they are instead detained, subjected to the prescribed procedures, and quickly repelled or expelled; this mathematically leads to zero releases on national territory, while actual crossing attempts remain above zero."

At the same time, the Trump administration has intensified its immigration offensive. Tough border controls are not enough: the goal now is to capture and deport as many migrants as possible in the US and, to do so, it crosses the thresholds of American airports and radically changes the rules of the game for hundreds of thousands of residents. The new frontier of controls is no longer limited to raids in cities or border patrols: now federal agents await targets directly at check-in counters and boarding gates. The targets are individuals in "overstay," i.e., those who have remained in the United States beyond the term of their visa. A vast audience, composed of professionals, former au pair program participants, and even spouses of US citizens.

Many of them are not irregular in the classical sense of the term: they are workers with valid permits who are in a bureaucratic limbo, awaiting the renewal of their residence permit or the issuance of a green card. If in the past authorities tended to tolerate these temporary positions – except in the presence of criminal records – today tolerance has been zeroed out. The operation has already been launched in at least 15 national airports. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) teams in civilian clothes stop travelers just before boarding or immediately after disembarking. In several cases, arrests occurred in the shadows; in others, amidst the bewilderment and protests of other passengers, who captured the scenes with their cell phones.

This qualitative leap stems from a direct synergy between ICE and the TSA (Transportation Security Administration), the agency that manages air security in the United States. A collaboration, inaugurated in May 2025, conducted by cross-referencing flight data with deportable records. In the past, Washington had always avoided involving the TSA in migratory controls so as not to paralyze internal air traffic and protect the freedom of movement of residents; that barrier has now fallen. The crackdown responds to precise operational directives. With the new Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, intent on “maintaining very high pressure,” and with the coordination of Tom Homan, responsible for White House migration policy, the executive has set a quota of 2,000 arrests per day. A pace almost doubled compared to the beginning of 2026.

“The goal is clear: to ensure that anyone without a valid residence permit cannot take any flight within the United States, except for the one returning to their country of origin," explain sources from the Department of Homeland Security to Adnkronos. For immigration law experts, this is a dramatic turning point. "Such a widespread and aggressive law enforcement campaign has never been seen before," confirm several lawyers in the sector. The advice given to all clients awaiting regularization or status change is drastic: avoid any flight within national territory. If once it was sufficient to show a valid identification document to travel between one state and another in the US, today boarding a plane can mean ending up directly in a detention center. The data confirms the extent of the offensive: in June alone, over 43,000 arrests related to travel and residency violations were recorded, the highest monthly figure since Trump's second term, with a prison population for migratory reasons exceeding 65,000 units by mid-July. The strategy of expanding arrest locations does not only concern airports. Recently, ICE also defended before judges the interventions carried out directly inside New York immigration courts, arguing that judicial venues represent the safest environment for executing arrest warrants. An unequivocal signal: for the administration, no public place is to be considered neutral anymore. (by Iacopo Luzi)

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