ICE arrested a Miami University student at Cincinnati's airport — and held him in jail for two weeks
Editorial illustration — Press Pass USAA 24-year-old Miami University student with no criminal record and a pending asylum application went to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Sept. 25 to catch a flight. He never boarded. After clearing the TSA line, two non-uniformed agents stopped him, identified themselves as immigration officers, handcuffed him and took him to a Kentucky jail — where he stayed for two weeks.
The student, who lives in Hamilton, Ohio, and whom The Cincinnati Enquirer agreed not to name to protect him and his family, said the agents asked for his name and told him they were recording him. They retrieved his bag from American Airlines, cuffed his hands and transported him to the Kenton County jail in Covington, Kentucky. He said he did not see an arrest warrant until he had been processed at the jail.
"I didn't know why I was here," he said, noting that no immigration office had alerted him that he was at risk of detention. "I didn't commit any crime."
He was released Oct. 9 after paying a $3,000 bond. Kenton County Jailer Marc Fields confirmed the dates of his detention. The Kenton County Detention Center has had an agreement with ICE to house federal immigration detainees since May 2025.
He and his family came to the United States from India in 2016 on a legal visa, but the visa expired before family members applied for asylum in 2021, the Enquirer reported. That gap led U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to start removal proceedings against him, according to his attorney, Cincinnati immigration lawyer Matt Benson. Now a senior at Miami University, where he plans a career in biotech, he faces a hearing on the government's removal order on Nov. 16. "I'm preparing myself to leave the country," he said.
His case is part of a wider pattern. Before this year, ICE arrests inside airports were "very rare," Benson said. They began rising after ICE and the Transportation Security Administration — both part of the Department of Homeland Security — signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2025 to share information "to identify individuals of interest to ICE in furtherance of its law enforcement mission." The agreement says the Secure Flight Final Rule, which allows the government to collect passenger information for aviation safety, gives TSA the right to work with ICE.
The watchdog group American Oversight obtained the heavily redacted, 16-page memo through a public-records lawsuit and posted it in July, after the arrangement was first reported. Reuters reported in April that ICE had arrested more than 800 people following tips from federal airport security officials from the start of President Donald Trump's second term through February 2026, with TSA supplying ICE with records on more than 31,000 travelers.
American Oversight called the cooperation between the agencies "a dangerous precedent." "Americans provide their personal information to board a plane safely, not to become part of an immigration enforcement system or a government surveillance network," the group's executive director, Chioma Chukwu, said in a press release.
With the holidays and a heavy travel season ahead, Benson is telling his clients to avoid airports. "I don't feel safe letting those people fly domestically," he said.
Federal officials confirmed the arrangement and defended it. In a statement to the Enquirer, an unnamed Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the student had "grossly" overstayed his visa and that his effort to win asylum does not provide him legal status. "Nobody should be surprised when the federal government collaborates with itself," the statement said. "ICE and TSA are proud members of the DHS family working together to safeguard the American people, our homeland and our values." The statement also said the 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."
At the airport, officials directed the Enquirer to submit a records request about the practice; that request is still pending. American Airlines did not respond to a question about its involvement in the student's arrest. The Department of Homeland Security did not answer a question about the total number of airport arrests under the ICE-TSA deal.
Sources: The Cincinnati Enquirer, "ICE grabs Miami student at airport, holds him for 2 weeks in jail" (Nov. 5, 2026, full text verified); Reuters, "ICE arrested more than 800 people after tips from US airport security agency" (April 7, 2026). Event date verified: arrest September 25, 2026; released October 9, 2026; removal-order hearing set for November 16, 2026; ICE-TSA memorandum signed May 2025.
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