On Monday, the Transportation Security Administration posted to X that it will no longer allow immigrants who are not legally in the U.S. to use the CBP One app to board domestic flights. The one exception is when they're traveling for self-deportation.
It's part of the Trump Administration's crackdown on noncitizens coming into the U.S. — but also those traveling domestically without a valid ID.
"If you want to board a flight, it's going to be out of the U.S., it's not to move around freely," said Jacob Sapochnick with Sapochnick Law Center. "They want to make the lives of undocumented migrants more complicated, obviously."
At this time last year, Terminal 2 of the San Diego International Airport was filled with asylum seekers.
They'd be there for hours — sometimes days — sleeping on these floors while waiting to fly to their sponsor family. Using the CBP One App, they could get through TSA without a government-issued ID.
But that part of the airport is now empty.
"It's going to cause a lot of heartache and hardship for asylum seekers," said Immigration Attorney Margaret Cargioli.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center was one of many organizations that used to help undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers fly out of San Diego. Now, Cargioli says those people will have to drive.
"This is going to put a burden on border cities that will now have to find alternate ways to help people transit to their destination cities," Cargioli said.
To keep track of government changes, Scripps News Group Correspondent Perla Shaheen has the CBP One app on my phone. When Shaheen checked it on Tuesday, it required an update and is now called CBP Go.
The app has completely changed and has zero features meant to support communities who are not legally in the U.S. The Trump administration has not clarified if there is a different way for people to fly domestically without valid ID.
We've reached out to TSA to ask about this, but have not heard back yet.
This story was originally published by Perla Shaheen with the Scripps News Group.
