CBP Agents Demand ID Before Domestic Passengers Allowed to Disembark at JFK

Federal officials confirmed that immigration agents checked the papers of passengers arriving in New York onboard a Delta Air Lines flight from San Francisco.

Passengers traveling on domestic flights within the US aren’t normally required to clear customs when arriving at their destination, so when passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) began reporting Wednesday that immigration agents were insisting on checking travelers papers before allowing them to deplane, it seemed possible that brand new federal travel policies might now be in place. The US Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP), however, called the unusual inspection procedure “routine” in press reports following a growing public outcry.

Passengers on the flight first began posting images of CBP checking travelers’ papers shortly after the domestic flight arrived at JFK Wednesday evening. Posts to social media from passengers on the flight described the document check as “forcible” and in at least one case, a flyer complained “We were told we couldn’t disembark without showing our ‘documents.’”

Meanwhile, CBP indicated that the incident was not at all unusual.

“[The CBC] was contacted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) yesterday, February 22, 2017, to assist in locating an individual possibly aboard Delta flight 1583 from San Francisco International Airport to JFK,” a CBP spokesperson told The Gothamist. “This individual was ordered removed by an immigration judge. To assist our law enforcement partners, two CBP officers requested identification from those on the flight in order to help identify the individual.”

The spokesman admitted that the passenger the agents were hoping to identify turned out not to be on the flight at all.

The New York Civil Liberties Union remained skeptical that Wednesday’s incident was routine at all.

“CBP does not have carte blanche to refuse to let people off a domestic flight until they show ID,” NYCLU Staff Attorney Jordan Wells told Rolling Stone. ”While one may choose to produce identity documents to avoid further hassle, it is important to remember that in the United States people have a constitutionally protected right to remain silent.”

Passenger Kelley Amadei believes the inspection was anything but ordinary and certainly didn’t get the impression that the document check was anything but compulsory. Amadei told New York NBC affiliate WNBC that the flight attendant told passengers that ID’s would be required to deplane and that the two agents were positioned in the jetway, directly in front of the aircraft’s exit door.

“It didn’t feel normal. I’ve been on a million domestic flights, I didn’t ever have that experience,” Amedei told reporters. “He studied my ID, for sure. I was checking because I was thinking maybe they were looking for someone in particular, but they didn’t have a manifest in their hands that I could see so they were just checking IDs.”