McALLEN, Texas (NEWSnet/AP) — The U.S. government has started requiring migrants without passports to submit to facial recognition technology to take domestic flights.

It is not clear exactly when the change took effect, but several migrants with flights from South Texas on Tuesday told advocacy groups they thought they were being turned away. The migrants include people who had used the government’s online appointment system to pursue immigration cases.

Advocates are concerned about migrants who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally before being processed by Border Patrol agents and released to pursue their immigration cases.

Transportation Security Administration told The Associated Press that migrants without proper photo identification who want to board flights must submit to facial recognition technology to verify identity using Department of Homeland Security records.

“If TSA cannot match their identity to DHS records, they will also be denied entry into the secure areas of the airport and will be denied boarding,” the agency said.

Agency officials did not say when TSA made the change, only that it was “recently” and not in response to a specific security threat.

Groups that work with migrants said the change caught them unawares. Migrants wondered if they might lose hundreds of dollars spent on nonrefundable tickets. After group of migrants returned to a shelter in McAllen on Tuesday, saying they were turned away at the airport, advocates exchanged messages trying to assess what the new TSA procedures are.

“It caused a tremendous amount of distress for people,” said the Rev. Brian Strassburger, executive director of Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries.

One Ecuadorian woman traveling with her child told AP she was able to board easily on Wednesday after allowing officers to take a photograph of her at the TSA checkpoint.

Follow NEWSnet on Facebook and X platform to get our headlines in your social feeds.

Copyright 2024 NEWSnet and The Associated Press. All rights reserved.