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NEW YORK, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. federal agents asked domestic flight passengers landing at a New York airport to show their identification in search for an undocumented immigrant Wednesday night, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed Thursday.
According to the CBP, the agency was contacted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Wednesday to help locate an individual possibly aboard Delta flight 1583 from San Francisco International Airport to John F. Kennedy Airport.
Two CBP agents requested identification from the passengers on the flight in order to help identify the individual, who was ordered by an immigration judge to leave the United States.
"The individual was determined not to be on the flight," said the CBP in a statement.
The CBP is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) charged with the management, control and protection of the U.S. borders at and between the official ports of entry.
The CBP "is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country," according to the agency.
The new U.S. administration led by President Donald Trump has issued a series of measures to tighten immigration policy.
The DHS on Tuesday released detailed policies on crackdowns on illegal immigrants, which included bolstering border protection agencies and closing policy loopholes.
The paper, along with the Memorandum for the Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest, were signed Monday by John Kelly, the secretary of the DHS.
Major steps outlined in the papers include hiring more Customs and Border Protection agents, expanding a program that gives Kelly more power in directing field operations, initiating a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, and stepping up the effort to "return aliens to contiguous countries."
The memos came in the wake of two executive orders signed by Trump in late January aimed at enhancing border security and restricting illegal immigrants across the country.
Another related executive order from Trump, which imposed a temporary ban on immigrants and citizens of seven Middle Eastern countries, was scrapped after federal judges ruled against it.
The status of illegal immigrants in the United States has become a contested subject.
There are an estimated over 11 million undocumented immigrants living across the United States.
Federal agents have conducted raids across the country and arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants in recent weeks, according to media reports.
