If a government agency collects private data for one purpose, and then another agency searches through it to try to detect unrelated criminal activity, wouldn't that violate the Fourth Amendment? Or at least some sort of data privacy laws?

Can the IRS pull credit reports of everyone with an FHA mortgage to search for tax evaders? <shrug>

Oops - looks like I'm wrong:

The TSA is not the problem, Border Patrol is. A year or two ago I was getting off the Amtrak at the Fort Lauderdale station and there were Border Patrol all over the platform conducting immigration inspections. It's not inconceivable that you could bump into them at the domestic airport. They have been known to do this at Buffalo, for example. The chances of this happening to you are extremely slim, but just be aware that the possibility does exist. I hope you are eventually able to straighten out your immigration status.

Just curious as to how they determine who may be illegal from this, assuming whoever they are questioning has papers everyone else had?

I don't know. I told the guy that I was a US citizen and that my friend was a permanent resident. He didn't ask me for any ID and he asked my friend if he had his green card on him, which he happened to have on him at the time.

IL and FL are both not safe. I have seen border patrol agent at Ft. Lauderdale Amtrak station as well... which means they probably work anywhere in FL. (but probably not as bad as AZ and CA)
http://www.aclu.org/national-securit...tion-free-zone

If you were legal once, how did you become illegal? Family member on temp work/student visa and just stayed?

My dad came here with a regular visa at first, established a business, bought a house and got a work visa. We extended that for some time and were working on getting green card papers and then lawyers who were taking care of this, messed some stuff up and we got declined for a green card. With this said I've been here since I was 13. Now I'm 24. Not to be racist or anything but I'm white, and look american-ish. My English is perfect. I finished high school and college here so I don't think just by looking at me anyone would suspect that I'm an immigrant.

I hate to be the one to tell you this: there are plenty of "American-looking" white Canadians in US immigration detention centers right now, waiting deportation.

I do not understand. How can one be legal for five years and then illegal?

Good thing, because LPR's are required by law to have it on them all the time!

If you have a visa that lets you stay in the US for five years and you don't leave then, you've been legal for five years and then become illegal.

Actually, if you stayed in USA for more than 6-months. You will be received green cards. If they are approved. You don't have any complaining against the Immigrations officer.

Catching a Canadian illegally working in the US isn't particularly difficult; catching a Canadian illegally in the US at a spot check is almost impossible. Does the US have access to CBSA records when they reenter Canada? If not, it becomes very difficult to determine whether they overstayed their six months entry periods in the US. Add to this fact that if they are a NAFTA Professional/Business visitor, they can stay up to 3 years. Additionally, Florida will give Canadians two year driver's licenses based solely on Canadian ID.

Putting aside politics, if I were Commissioner of the Arizona State Police given the authority and duty (e.g. the injunction is lifted) to enforce Arizona's laws, I would tell my police to resolve all doubts in favor of the Canadian. It is too easy to make a mistake about their status in the US and would face a PR disaster locking up a couple of sympathetic snow birds from Winnipeg.

The paranoia on this board is just insane sometimes. I lived in Broward County for a while and flew out of FLL almost every week, and not once, ever, saw a CBP/ICE check anywhere. In the airport, at the car rental center, on a highway, in a shopping center, nowhere at all. If you grew up in the US and have a valid DL, you will experience absolutely zero problems on your trip. There are many tens of thousands of illegals floating around South Florida, so if ICE ever was to get a wild hair going and stop some people randomly, they aren't going to question someone with a US accent and a valid DL.

For the paranoid types, ask yourself - how many times has ICE stopped you over the years while inside the US, and what forms of ID did you give, if any? I've only been stopped at highway checkpoints in TX, NM, AZ and CA and it's a verbal Q/A, if even that. They don't check even DLs.

Don't get your legal advice on FT. Go to a good and trustworthy immigration lawyer and get your status adjusted. Sooner or later, if not on this trip, you will bump into the system. Your bigger risk is not from TSA but from SecureFlight which may kick you out of its system for review by DHS/ICE (or not).

For what it's worth, CBP was out in force at LAX on Weds PM, doing spot checks on UA flights so don't count on the fact that somebody else has flown 1000 times without a problem. You only need one mess-up.

That said, you face this problem every day. So, don't make it about flying, make it about getting your status in order.