[EPA]
[EPA]

A South Korean national was arrested by US immigration authorities aboard a domestic flight as the Trump administration's enforcement operations extend to the country's airports.

According to Yonhap and other reports Monday, a South Korean citizen was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement inside a passenger aircraft at an airport in the southern United States earlier this month after the plane landed. Officials said the person was traveling on a domestic flight — not an international one — and had overstayed their visa.

The New York Times reported that plainclothes ICE agents have been appearing at domestic check-in counters and boarding gates at more than 15 airports, detaining foreign nationals. At least 27 arrests have been confirmed.

ICE agents had previously made immigration arrests at airports, but those operations had been limited to individuals with finalized deportation orders.

Forbes reported that spouses married to US citizens were among those detained. Immigration attorneys also said clients who had entered the country legally and were in the process of seeking asylum had been taken into custody.

Internal ICE documents obtained by Reuters show that more than 800 people were arrested based on tips from the Transportation Security Administration between President Trump's inauguration and last February. The TSA passed more than 31,000 traveler records to ICE during that period.

ICE said it arrested 1,226 undocumented immigrants in Georgia on Saturday in a statewide operation centered on Atlanta, officially named "Operation Safe Community — Atlanta."

ICE said 720 of those arrested had prior criminal records. Legal sources said it was not confirmed whether the South Korean national detained on the aircraft was among those counted in the operation.

On Sept. 4 last year, more than 300 South Korean workers were detained by ICE at a construction site for a Hyundai-LG Group joint venture battery factory near Savannah, Georgia, over visa issues. They were released within a week following diplomatic negotiations and returned to South Korea; some later obtained new visas and returned to the site.

Southeast Immigrant Freedom, a local human rights organization, urged immigrants to be aware of their rights and prepare for emergencies, citing a recent increase in ICE enforcement activity in the Atlanta area.


dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com