Democracy
Chicago journalist and his wife had TSA precheck suspended after ICE arrest
Earlier this month, Chicago journalist Stephen Held revealed that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) suspended his and his wife’s TSA PreCheck after he was arrested by Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) last September.
Held, who is an investigative reporter and the co-founder of the independent news organization Unraveled Press, was arrested by CPB last year while filming a protest outside the Broadview, Ill. ICE detention facility on Sept. 27, 2025. In a Bluesky post from March 4, Held included a letter he received from TSA after his arrest informing him that his TSA PreCheck and Global Entry eligibility had been revoked.
I haven’t said anything about this before, bc in the grand scheme of horrors this only rates as an inconvenience, but since others are experiencing it:
Just three days after CBP arrested me for filming them outside Broadview on 9/27, my TSA Pre & Global Entry were suspended—and so were my wife’s.
— Steve Held (The People’s Fabric) (@peoplesfabric.bsky.social) March 4, 2026 at 3:03 PM
TSA PreCheck is a government program that allows travelers expedited screening through airport security. According to the TSA website, a temporary disqualification is only warranted if you threaten, interfere, intimidate or commit assault with a flight crew or individuals on an aircraft or otherwise interfere with airport security standards.
“If you commit certain violations of federal security regulations, such as assault, threat, intimidation, or interference with flight crew, physical or sexual assault or threat of physical or sexual assault of any individual on an aircraft, interference with security operations, access control violations, providing false or fraudulent documents, making a bomb threat, or bringing a firearm, explosive, or other prohibited item to an airport or onboard an aircraft, you are denied expedited screening for a period of time,” the TSA website says.
Global Entry is a similar program for international flying with a stricter list of reasoning for suspension.
In an interview with Heartland Signal, Held said he was never charged with assault or any other crime. He recalled that around 7:00 p.m. on Sept. 27, former CBP chief Gregory Bovino declared the street in front of the facility an automatic arrest zone. Over the previous week, ICE and Border Patrol agents had deployed tear gas and pepper ball projectiles on protesters and journalists, including Held’s co-worker Raven Geary.
Held said he was standing on the curb filming a group of agents arresting another person when he was ordered to step back, which would have put him in the automatic arrest zone on the street.
“So as my brain tried to process the conflicting orders essentially, I just took a step to my left which was actually away from where they were arresting this person,” Held said. “And the next thing I knew, I was just on my stomach, on the ground and had several Border Patrol agents on my back handcuffing me saying I didn’t comply with the orders.”
After he was arrested by Border Patrol agent Timothy Donahue, Held says he was detained in the Broadview facility for roughly six hours, where he saw a glimpse of the inhumane conditions firsthand including no beds or showers. In November, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to update the Broadview facility and provide detainees with beds, showers and three full meals per day.
Held was grouped with nine others who were arrested, and noted that all the white men in the room were allowed to leave without being charged.
“At the end of the night when they decided who was going to the federal detention center and who was being released, coincidentally, it was all of the white men who were being released,” Held said. “The two Black men were being charged, the trans woman was being charged and then the woman in the other cell was being charged.”
Held says he was in disbelief when he received the letter from TSA on Oct. 6, which incorrectly claims he was involved with an assault in “Terrace, Illinois,” which is a place that does not exist. Under the First Amendment, everyone has the right to take photos or videos of law enforcement officers performing their duties in public.
Held suspects that the government is weaponizing even “something as trivial as TSA PreCheck” to dissuade protesting or covering the Trump administration’s actions.
“I assume all of this, you know the arrests, tear gassing, canceling travel status, all of those things I assume are intended to dissuade people from attending protests or covering things like protests,” Held continued. “Taking every piece of the federal bureaucracy that they can to weaponize it against anybody who’s opposed to their agenda.”
Held said his wife’s TSA PreCheck and Global Entry were also revoked. However, she apparently did not receive a notice and only found out weeks later at the airport the next time she traveled. She also has never had an encounter with ICE or Border Patrol agents and seemingly no other reason for a suspension other than her association to her husband.
When Held’s wife checked her status online, it still says she is eligible for TSA PreCheck. But he says she was told that “Border Patrol Chicago had flagged her in such a way that it was almost like a shadow ban and gave no reason for it.”
Held has not heard an update since he appealed his suspension in November and has heard from multiple people who were present at Broadview that the same thing has happened to them, leading him to think that it was not just an innocent mistake.
“Hearing about this happening to more people, particularly people who weren’t even arrested and were just scanned by ICE in the field, certainly makes it seem like it’s all part of some harassment campaign by the federal government,” Held said.
Unprecedented attacks on political opponents
Throughout Trump’s second term, the administration has attempted to obtain and compile an unprecedented amount of sensitive data about American residents, including voter registration information (which includes birth dates, home addresses, and Social Security numbers), SNAP enrollees, college admissions data and data from the Social Security Administration.
Trump and his allies contend that this data collection will reduce fraud, streamline government efficiency, help identify noncitizens for deportation and enforce Trump’s anti-DEI policies. But critics argue the collection of data will subject Americans to unwarranted invasion of privacy, potential election interference and the creation of a central database that can be used to target people based on race, religion, immigration status or political beliefs.
Patrick Eddington, a senior fellow in homeland security and civil liberties at the Cato Institute, said Held’s case provides further evidence of the Trump administration compiling an “enemies list.”
“When we talk about the Held case here, at least what it tells me, is that they, in fact, do have an enemies list,” Eddington told Heartland Signal in an interview. “So almost anybody that opposes this regime, you know, almost invariably finds themselves on the receiving end. And that enemies list can include not just you, but your spouse, significant other or other family member, if they decide they want to engage in a form of collective punishment, which is pretty much what this sounds like.”
In the case of voter information, the administration has sued more than 20 states to obtain unredacted voter rolls. States alone have the authority to keep and maintain this information, as well as run elections. However, the administration has made it clear that one of their goals with this data collection is for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct its own analysis and “assist” states with detecting ineligible voters.
The Brennan Center of Justice points out that the DOJ is currently staffed by multiple people who disputed the 2020 presidential election results. In January, the DOJ also admitted that at least one DOGE employee at the Social Security Administration signed a “voter data agreement” with an advocacy group that was attempting to find evidence of voter fraud to overturn election results in states.
Additionally, the administration has used arrests, prosecutions and investigations to target Democrats in Congress. Last September, Trump also signed an executive order designating antifa, a generalized term for anti-fascists, as a “domestic terrorist organization.”
“Just basically trying to designate adherents of a political philosophy as being enemies of the state, or in this case, enemies of the would-be king Mr. Trump. That’s just straight up classic authoritarianism,” Eddington continued.
Deterring newsgathering
After Held’s arrest, Seth Stern, the director of advocacy at the Freedom for Press Foundation (FPF), released a statement bashing ICE’s recent history of abuses against journalists and protesters.
“Journalists are constitutionally entitled to cover protests and their aftermath, including after dispersal orders. ICE’s well-documented very recent history of abuses of journalists and demonstrators alike shows exactly why it’s so important that law enforcement can’t operate outside the view of the press,” the statement reads. “Steve Held, the journalist arrested tonight and taken to a so far undisclosed location, was part of the reporting team that exposed the falsity of ICE’s official narrative on the fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas González. His work speaks for itself. Officials need to immediately release Held and let journalists do their jobs. We don’t have secret police in this country.”
Held pinned the final post of his March 8 Bluesky thread on his page, saying that he is not intimidated.
“If the intent was to intimidate us or silence our reporting, it didn’t work,” Held’s post says.
If the intent was to intimidate us or silence our reporting, it didn’t work.
BTW, here’s a recent story identifying some violent agents from El Paso who passed through Chicago and the Twin Cities.
— Steve Held (The People’s Fabric) (@peoplesfabric.bsky.social) March 4, 2026 at 3:23 PM
A December 2025 report from the FPF found that of the 32 journalists detained or charged in the United States last year, 28 of them were at immigration-related protests like Held. Most of them were either released without charges or had their charges dropped.
Most recently, Tennessee journalist Estefany Rodriguez has been in ICE custody since March 4. ICE claims they had a warrant for Rodriguez’s arrest, which her legal team disputes. A coalition of 46 press freedom groups sent a letter demanding Rodriguez’s release accusing the Trump administration of political retaliation.
“Rodriguez has covered immigration, including ICE actions, for the local Spanish-language news site Nashville Noticias, and has also made critical comments online about the Trump administration,” the letter says. “With her arrest, federal authorities have both silenced an important on-the-ground perspective and have sent a chilling message that reporting critical of the administration may face retaliation. Rodriguez’s detention is part of a broader erosion of democratic norms and human rights in the United States in which immigration authorities are increasingly being used to chill free expression and First Amendment rights. This practice must stop.”
On Sunday, Trump posted a 400-word rant on Truth Social saying news outlets who cover his war with Iran in a manner that he does not approve should be “brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information.”