AI Generated Image (not the people or airport involved in this story)
ICE airport arrests of people with pending asylum cases have now surfaced in three cities within days of one another, and the newest, in Phoenix, shows how a routine domestic flight has become a point of enforcement for people the government has authorized to work. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Argentine acrobats Agustin Baccega and Gustavo Romanello, a married couple, at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Nov. 7, according to an ICE statement reported by AZFamily. Both have pending asylum applications and valid work permits, KJZZ reported, and ICE says both overstayed visas that expired in 2021.
The pair had flown back to Arizona from Florida for a trainer’s memorial service, AZFamily reported, and are held at ICE’s facility in Florence. ICE described the arrests to KJZZ as a “targeted enforcement action” and would not say how its officers knew the men would be at the airport, or whether they had warrants, citing “operational and security reasons.”
Three ICE airport arrests, one pattern
Phoenix follows two cases this site has covered. On Nov. 5, ICE detained a Wisconsin State Patrol trooper at a Madison airport as he waited for a domestic flight; he holds a work permit and is a derivative on his father’s pending asylum case, and his lawyers later said he was released on an order of supervision (full coverage of the Wisconsin trooper’s arrest). In San Francisco, agents detained UC Berkeley student Paula Albornoz Hernandez, a Colombian asylum seeker, at a departure gate (the SFO arrest), and a federal judge later ordered her freed after finding she had been held without a required bond hearing (the release order).
| Airport | Arrest date | Who was arrested | Pending case | Status since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dane County Regional (Madison) | Nov. 5 | State trooper, 21 | Derivative on father’s asylum application | Released on order of supervision, lawyers said |
| San Francisco International | Early November | UC Berkeley student, 23 | Asylum | Freed by federal court order |
| Phoenix Sky Harbor | Nov. 7 | Two performers, a married couple | Asylum, filed soon after arrival in 2020 | Detained in Florence, Ariz. |
The common thread is legal, not geographic. Each person was admitted lawfully, stayed past the end of that admission and then sought asylum. ICE’s position, stated to KJZZ by spokesperson Fernando Burgos-Ortiz, is that “work authorization or a pending application does not grant legal status in the United States.” That is an accurate statement of the law. A pending asylum application generally stops unlawful presence from counting toward the 3- and 10-year bars and makes the applicant eligible for an employment authorization document, but it is not lawful status, and it does not bar an arrest.
What has changed is enforcement practice. In the Wisconsin case, DHS told ABC News it had reversed what it called a Biden-era policy that let people in that situation fly domestically. The couple’s attorney, Ray Ybarra Maldonado, told KJZZ that arrests of people with pending affirmative applications have risen sharply this year and that he had not seen this level of airport activity in 17 years of practice.
The questions ICE has not answered
The warrant question is more than procedural. Under 8 U.S.C. 1357(a)(2), immigration officers may arrest without a warrant only with reason to believe a person is removable and likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. A “targeted” arrest planned around a known flight fits that escape test awkwardly, which is why ICE’s refusal to say whether it had administrative warrants is likely to come up in any habeas petition or custody hearing.
Detention is the second pressure point. Because ICE’s own account says both men were admitted at Los Angeles and Miami, they fall under the discretionary detention statute, 8 U.S.C. 1226(a), rather than the mandatory provisions the government has applied to people who entered without inspection. That allows bond, and their lawyers plan to seek custody redetermination hearings, AZFamily reported. The San Francisco ruling shows a federal judge stepping in when ICE held an asylum seeker without a required bond hearing, and a class action filed in Atlanta is testing how freely ICE may re-arrest people it has released.
Scale is why the issue reaches beyond three cases. The affirmative asylum backlog at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services topped 1.4 million cases at the end of fiscal 2025, according to an interim final rule DHS published July 28, 2026. ICE made more than 491,000 arrests in fiscal 2026, according to figures DHS released Nov. 12. For backlog applicants who were admitted on visas and later overstayed, the practical effect is that a boarding pass now carries much the same risk as an ICE check-in.
The next markers are the Phoenix couple’s custody hearings, whether ICE confirms that it used warrants, and whether the incoming Democratic majorities in Congress make airport enforcement part of the oversight they have promised for January.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
Sources
- KJZZ, “Attorney for 2 men detained by ICE at Phoenix airport says that type of arrest is on the rise” (Nov. 14, 2026)
- AZFamily, “Why Arizona acrobats were detained at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport” (Nov. 11, 2026)
- Department of Homeland Security, “Affirmative Asylum Referrals Without Interview,” interim final rule, 91 Fed. Reg. 47101 (July 28, 2026)
- Department of Homeland Security, “ICE Breaks Records in Fiscal Year 2026, With Most Arrests and Deportations in Agency’s History” (Nov. 12, 2026)
- ABC News, “Wisconsin state trooper detained by ICE” (Nov. 6, 2026)
- 8 U.S.C. 1357, Powers of immigration officers and employees
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