Originally Posted by
ND Sol
What turns this from the sublime to the ridiculous is the fact that Mr. Acevedo was on a ticket to Mexico City. So if the TSA would have done nothing, Mr. Acevedo would have "deported" himself. Now ICE is involved and additional costs will be incurred by the taxpayers to send Mr. Acevedo to where he was going anyway.

My thoughts exactly.
However, TSA would have missed a valuable PR op, and that was more than worth the money to deport him.