What to Do If Approached by ICE at the Airport, Border, Workplace, or Home
Throughout this year, several travelers have shared stressful stories of being denied entry to the US at both airports and border crossings. Take the case of Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian actress and entrepreneur who was denied entry at the border and detained by immigration authorities for two weeks (an experience she wrote about).
The most recent data shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions have gone up 25% since US President Donald Trump has taken office. And between his inauguration and June 2025, there has been an 807% increase in the arrest of immigrants with no criminal record. If you are an international visitor or US resident without permanent citizenship status, it's helpful to know your legal rights in the case of an unexpected encounter with immigration officers or border patrol agents.
'ICE officers only have the authority to enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act,' says Veronica Cardenas, a former ICE attorney who is now an immigrant rights lawyer and a coach for other immigrant lawyers. 'And so the first question that they have to have the answer to is: Is this person committing an immigration violation? And that can't ever be on the basis of someone's skin color, the language that they speak, [or] what they're driving.'
Every person spoken to for this article has deep, intimate knowledge of immigration, ICE, and the US legal system: Juan Carlos Rivera is an immigration attorney in Miami, Florida; Gina Amato Lough is the Directing Attorney for the Public Counsel's Immigrants' Rights Project; and Maribel Hernández Rivera is the National Director of Immigrant Community Strategies at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). We asked them for their expert advice on what to do if you're approached by ICE in six possible scenarios: at the airport, at the border, at home, at the workplace, on the street, or while driving.
At the airport
Airports are unique entry and exit points for the US, so your rights vary based on your immigration or citizenship status. You're more likely to encounter CBP (Customs and Border Patrol), though ICE can also be present and often works alongside CBP, as both agencies are part of the Department of Homeland Security. 'At international airports and border crossings, officers do have broader powers, but those powers aren't unlimited,' says Rivera.
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