Originally Posted by
Whytbxfly
Hello everyone. I am an out-of-status exchange student, as my visa expired in 2013.
I want to fly from JFK (New York) to MSY (New Orleans). I’m going to use my country’s government issued valid passport to travel. What are the chances the TSA guys will give me a hard time and possibly introduce me to their ICE and DHS friends ?
Does TSA have the right to question my legal status ?
How risky it is and how likely is for me to encounter with immigration officers ?
Thanks in advance.
CBP isn’t frequently doing such checks at JFK or MSY for domestic flights. For airports closer to the Canadian or Mexican land borders, the chances of such CBP checks are higher but still far from commonly experienced. If this were for a domestic trip originating out of say BUF, then the chances are far higher than for a domestic trip out of JFK.
TSA doesn’t commonly make an issue of foreign passports’ US entry stamps (if any); and absent a need to present other ID/identification (beside the passport) to the TSA, and absent some prejudicial reasoning for CBP to be called by TSA, I wouldn’t expect a problem for such circumstances unless encountering some DHS-CBP and/or airline trial, technology-assisted or otherwise, being run at the time of the trip.