An Oakland immigration attorney says what should have been a straightforward trip out of San Francisco International Airport turned into a 45‑minute ordeal when Transportation Security Administration agents pulled him aside, subjected him to intensive screening and told him he had been placed on a government watchlist. The experience included an extensive search of his bags, close scrutiny of his electronics and what he describes as an invasive pat‑down, leaving him rattled and wondering whether his work on behalf of immigrants put a target on his back.
According to NBC Bay Area, attorney Nikolas De Bremaeker was pulled into a separate screening area before a flight to Boston earlier this month. He told the outlet that they gave me the most extreme pat‑down of my life, and said agents powered on his devices and went through every item in his bags. De Bremaeker reported that he disabled his phone's fingerprint sensor to protect confidential client files and that TSA personnel told him the screening was not random.
De Bremaeker is listed as a supervising attorney on Centro Legal de la Raza’s immigrants' rights team in Oakland. He has been a frequent critic of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and helped litigate cases challenging ICE's practice of re‑arresting people after court appearances. A federal judge's order in Garro Pinchi v. Noem blocked that policy in the San Francisco area, and the ruling and related filings have since become touchstones for Bay Area advocates who argued the re‑arrest practice lacked adequate legal justification.
A Freedom of Information Act request has been filed on De Bremaeker’s behalf to find out why he was stopped and whether he is on a watchlist, NBC Bay Area reports. Bill Hing, a law and migration studies professor at the University of San Francisco, told the outlet the incident "fits a broader pattern" of intimidation aimed at lawyers who represent noncitizens. The Department of Homeland Security and the TSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to the reporting.
How Watchlists Work And What Redress Looks Like
Federal watchlists are compiled and shared across agencies, including the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, Customs and Border Protection and the TSA, and they have drawn criticism from oversight bodies and civil‑liberties groups. The ACLU and others have documented concerns about the list’s size and secrecy, and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has urged greater transparency. Travelers who believe they have been mistakenly flagged can seek review through the Department of Homeland Security’s Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, known as DHS TRIP, which accepts inquiries and issues redress numbers that are meant to help resolve travel‑screening problems.
Why Bay Area Lawyers Worry
Attorneys who represent detained immigrants say heightened scrutiny of legal advocates could chill representation and make it harder for clients to secure counsel for critical hearings. Recent local cases, including a family deportation that drew statewide attention, highlight the real‑world stakes when enforcement actions collide with legal representation, as KQED reported. Local clinics and advocacy groups say they plan to closely review any records released under the FOIA request to understand whether De Bremaeker’s experience was a targeted action or a screening error.
De Bremaeker’s team says it will publish any records it receives under the FOIA and continue representing clients while it seeks answers. For now, the episode adds another data point to ongoing debates about how watchlists are applied, who gets hit with enhanced screening and how the government balances security procedures with due process and attorney‑client confidentiality.
