South Korean National Arrested by ICE Aboard U.S. Domestic Flight Over Visa Overstay

▲ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

As the immigration crackdown by the Donald Trump administration expands to airports, a South Korean national has been arrested at an airport after boarding a domestic flight within the United States.

According to legal sources familiar with local immigration enforcement on the 10th (local time), a South Korean national was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inside an aircraft that had just landed at a southern U.S. airport earlier this month.

Sources stated that the individual was aboard a U.S. domestic flight rather than an international one and is believed to have overstayed their visa limit.

Previously, ICE announced on the 8th that it had arrested 1,226 undocumented immigrants within the state of Georgia.

ICE reported that in this crackdown around the Atlanta area, conducted under the operation name "Safe Communities," more than half of those arrested—totaling 720 individuals—had prior criminal records.

However, legal sources noted that it remains unclear whether the South Korean national arrested at the airport was included among the more than 1,200 individuals detained by ICE.

Earlier, the U.S. daily The New York Times (NYT) reported that plainclothes ICE agents at 15 airports across the United States have increasingly been arresting foreigners at domestic check-in counters and boarding gates.

The newspaper noted that a significant number of the arrested foreigners are immigrants staying beyond their authorized visa periods, and unlike in the past when they were not priorities for deportation, they are now becoming targets of ICE enforcement.

On September 4 of last year, ICE arrested around 300 South Korean workers over visa issues at a joint Hyundai-LG battery plant construction site near Savannah, Georgia.

They were released and returned to South Korea a week later as a result of diplomatic negotiations, and some have since been reissued U.S. visas to return to the construction site.

"Immigration Equality in the Southeast," a local human rights organization in Savannah, Georgia, advised that "ICE enforcement activities have been increasing recently around the Atlanta, Georgia area, and immigrants must know their rights and prepare for emergencies."

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)

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