Jazmin Nicolini-Alvarez was getting ready to board a flight to Florida for what she hoped would be a career-advancing opportunity when her name was called over the gate speaker at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Instead of boarding, she was escorted through the gate, out onto the tarmac, and into a marked Department of Homeland Security vehicle that drove her away from the airport. She is now being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.
Nicolini-Alvarez, who is originally from Argentina and has no criminal history, was arrested by federal immigration officers in the terminal, according to KING5.com. Her husband, Bobby Schmidt, said she initially thought she might be getting an upgrade when airport staff called her name, not realizing agents were waiting for her. He told the station she had wanted to take the work trip to prove herself professionally.
Port of Seattle video obtained by the station through a public disclosure request shows Nicolini-Alvarez approaching the gate after hearing her name announced, then being led away. The couple had flown together just once before, in December 2025, without any problems. Schmidt is now fighting to bring his wife home and has begun fundraising to cover attorney fees.
A Marriage That Didn't Shield Her From Arrest
Nicolini-Alvarez and Schmidt married in May 2025, but marriage to a U.S. citizen does not automatically grant lawful immigration status or prevent deportation, and adjusting status through marriage can involve additional legal hurdles depending on a person's immigration history, the station reported. After consulting an attorney in 2025, the couple decided not to pursue a change to her immigration status.
Schmidt said they held off because of the cost, the uncertain odds of success, and fear of drawing attention to her case. He said an attorney described changing immigration status under the current administration as costly and difficult. Now, he said, his wife is asked almost daily to leave the country voluntarily, and he fears she could be deported before they have a chance to resolve her case through the courts.
Schmidt told the station that immigration enforcement doesn't only affect people with criminal records, pointing to people like his wife who have careers, families, and established lives in the United States. Immigration attorneys generally recommend that people with unresolved immigration status, as well as lawful permanent residents with potentially disqualifying criminal histories, seek individualized legal advice before traveling, even on domestic flights.
Part of a Broader Airport Enforcement Push
Nicolini-Alvarez's arrest comes amid what immigration attorneys describe to CNN as a growing pattern of ICE arrests happening more frequently at airports nationwide, with agents increasingly focusing on travelers with expired visas rather than solely those with existing deportation orders. CNN's reporting includes a woman detained at a Washington, DC-area airport while flying home to Texas for her father's funeral, and a Denver arrest of a woman DHS said had overstayed a visa that expired in January 2025.
The New York Times has documented enforcement actions at no fewer than 15 airports in recent weeks, part of a program that appears to have expanded beyond people with final removal orders to include visa overstays broadly. A separate Times analysis found ICE arrests climbed to record highs of 43,000 in June and 49,000 in July, with a majority of those arrested in July accused only of civil immigration violations rather than criminal charges, and the share with past violent convictions falling below 4 percent.
That expansion has coincided with rapid growth inside the agency itself. ICE staffing grew to roughly 29,000 employees in June, up from about 21,000 when President Trump took office, while deportation flights reached a recorded 329 in July. Separately, FactCheck.org found the share of ICE arrestees with no criminal record at all rose from 21.9 percent early in the administration to 40.5 percent in the three months ending in mid-October.
Crowded Conditions Inside Tacoma's Detention Center
The facility where Nicolini-Alvarez is now held has itself seen dramatic growth. KUOW reported the daily population inside the Northwest ICE Processing Center rose from 801 people in January 2025 to slightly above its 1,575-bed capacity by early June. The outlet also reported that 70 percent of detainees there have no criminal history, and that the federal government cut funding for a longstanding legal orientation program at detention centers, including Tacoma, in January 2025.
Similar airport arrests have been reported elsewhere. Louisville Public Media documented four arrests at the city's Muhammad Ali International Airport over the summer, including a 31-year-old Ugandan woman with sickle-cell anemia traveling to a medical convention and a 26-year-old man with dual Brazilian and Portuguese citizenship who was, like Nicolini-Alvarez, on his way to Florida. The outlet noted that the exact nationwide count of airport arrests remains unknown because publicly available data is limited.
For now, Nicolini-Alvarez remains in federal custody in Tacoma while her husband tries to raise money for legal representation and presses forward with her case. Her situation reflects a broader uncertainty facing many families navigating the immigration system, where, as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services notes, specific exceptions to inadmissibility can hinge on the timing of unlawful presence and when removal proceedings begin.
