The Perils of Flying With DACA Under Trump

Under Trump, Dreamers face airport interrogations and threats of deportation—even when their papers are valid.

WASHINGTON — The story begins the way so many American stories do: a young mother with a baby stroller waiting for the airport shuttle. She had boarded with a Real ID, cleared TSA, landed safely, and was thinking about luggage and car seats, not deportation. That’s when Immigration and Customs Enforcement stepped out of the shadows and called her by name.

“I had an ‘immediate removal letter’ from when I first arrived as a child,” she told Migrant Insider over the weekend. “I’ve had DACA since 2012, never losing status. But they said it didn’t matter. They even asked my husband if he would take custody of our baby if they detained me.”

Her crime was flying while DACA.

The agents already knew her husband’s name, her place of work, even details of her mother’s immigration file. They snapped pictures of her face, quizzed her about documents, and dismissed her Employment Authorization Document as “nothing.” Only after she managed to pull up her I-765 approval notice online did they back off. …