Jetway Jackpots: How Homeland Security Keeps Playing Hot Potato with Passengers’ Cash

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If you thought “lost luggage” was the worst thing that could happen at the airport, allow me to introduce you to the new low-cost airline add-on: spontaneous government cash sequestration. 

A year after the Justice Department pulled the plug on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s airport gate-search program amid constitutional alarm bells, Homeland Security is apparently keeping the party going — but with different uniforms and the same suspiciously flimsy reasons to help itself to travelers’ wallets.

According to recent reporting, task forces made up of Homeland Security Investigations agents, Customs and Border Protection officers and local police have been flagging passengers at Dallas-area airports, using drug-sniffing dogs to create probable cause and then searching — and often seizing — cash from luggage even when no criminal charges follow. 

The result: a courtroom headache for the traveler and a windfall for agency forfeiture accounts. 

It reads like a bad game show where the prize is life savings and the host is wearing a badge.

Why did the DEA step back? 

The agency’s Transportation Interdiction Program (TIP) — a long-running practice of “consensual” searches at gates and jetways — was put on ice after internal reviews and a Justice Department inspector general report raised serious Fourth Amendment and due-process concerns. 

The suspension came after reporting and audits showed the program netted little in arrests while seizing millions in cash, and sometimes relied on airline workers or last-minute ticket purchases as flimsy “indicators” of criminality. 

The Justice Department concluded airport gate searches posed constitutional risk and litigation exposure.

But here’s the twist: DHS, through HSI and CBP, appears to have simply shifted the choreography. 

The Dallas reporting highlights cases that make this tactic look less like targeted law enforcement and more like a sloppy algorithm for suspicion: a drug dog alerts on a bag, agents find no drugs, and yet six-figure sums of cash disappear into forfeiture proceedings. 

One passenger reportedly had $800,000 seized after agents said they smelled marijuana in suitcases that later produced no drugs; another lost roughly $350,000 that was later partly returned in settlement. 

The owners weren’t charged — but they were certainly out of luck and out of cash until they forced the government to defend its takings.

Those anecdotes are not anomalies — they’re part of a troubling pattern. 

A 2017 Inspector General review found the DEA seized over $4 billion in cash in a decade, and about $3.2 billion of that was never linked to criminal charges. 

Civil-liberties groups argue that civil asset forfeiture lets law enforcement reap rewards with few due-process safeguards, creating perverse incentives to seize before proving wrongdoing. 

In practice, that means innocent people (retirees, parents, travelers) can watch life savings vanish while the government treats the cash like evidence even when charges never follow.

For plaintiffs like Terrence (Terry) Rolin — the retired railroad engineer whose life savings were seized as his daughter tried to carry it on a flight — the legal fight has been long and costly. 

The Institute for Justice and other public-interest groups have repeatedly challenged these practices in court, and high-profile settlements and returns of cash underscore how frequently seizures lack the prosecutorial follow-through that might have justified them in the first place. 

“You don't forfeit your constitutional rights when you try to board an airplane,” said Institute for Justice attorney Dan Alban in previous litigation — a line that lands with particular force when DHS agents keep doing essentially the same thing the DEA was asked to stop.

Law-enforcement defenders insist forfeiture is a vital tool against organized crime and that sometimes those seizures do lead to arrests or later prosecutions. 

And yes, repeat offenders have been caught with cash multiple times. 

But the appearance of profit-driven enforcement — settlements where only part of seized cash is returned, or cases where cash becomes the final outcome even without charges — corrodes public trust. 

When settlements return only a slice of seized money, it raises the awkward question: if the government truly believed the cash was drug proceeds, why give half back? 

If it believed otherwise, why keep any of it at all?

A program paused for constitutional reasons shouldn’t quietly reemerge under a different letterhead. 

If the Justice Department’s suspensions were meant to address systemic legal risks, then DHS’s continued airport seizures deserve the same scrutiny — not a sleight of hand at the jetway. 

Travelers should be able to fly with cash for legitimate reasons without the risk of an impromptu forfeiture lesson. 

Until Congress or the courts clamp down, the moral is both simple and grim: carry your money — but don’t assume you’ll get it back without a fight. 

And the line at the lost-and-found should also consider adding a new bin labeled “Civil Forfeiture” to the collection for now...as it seems no matter what the Justice Department decides...money is still a stronger player than the letter of the law!


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#JetwayJackpot #AirportForfeiture #HSI #CBP #CivilAssetForfeiture #TIPShutdown #DEA #JusticeDept #TerryRolin #InstituteForJustice #DogSniffSearches #DallasSeizures #DoJIGReport #DueProcessNow #PassengersNotPiggyBanks

Sources summary (brief): Recent reporting on DHS task forces seizing cash at Dallas-area airports and using drug-sniffing dogs to establish probable cause. Coverage of the Justice Department/DOJ Inspector General findings and the November 2024 suspension of DEA “consensual” airport searches (TIP). Background data on prior DEA forfeitures and OIG findings showing billions seized and large amounts never charged. Institute for Justice litigation and case histories (e.g., Terry Rolin) documenting returned funds and legal challenges. (Reason.com)

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