Union sues federal agency over revoked airport worker clearances

Lawsuit targets CBP at five major airports

A national airport workers union and four former Boston Logan Airport employees filed a federal lawsuit Friday, March 13, accusing U.S. Customs and Border Protection of illegally stripping security clearances from immigrant workers who hold valid work permits.

The union says the revocations began in early 2025 and have picked up speed since. The case was filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.

Yale Law School’s Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic is representing the plaintiffs.

Workers need a “customs seal” to do their jobs

To work in secure areas at international airports, employees must carry a customs seal, an ID clearance CBP issues under federal regulations dating back to 1986.

These zones cover areas where international passengers, crew, and baggage move through, plus aircraft ramp areas. Cabin cleaners, wheelchair escorts, and passenger service agents all need one.

Without it, they cannot do their jobs.

Under federal rules in 19 CFR Part 122, CBP port directors hold the power to grant, deny, or revoke those seals.

At least 80 Logan workers lost their clearances

The Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ says at least 80 workers at Logan lost their customs seals.

Revocations also hit workers at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, San Francisco International Airport, Orlando International Airport, and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

The affected workers include people with Temporary Protected Status, asylum seekers with pending cases, and green card applicants.

According to the lawsuit, all of them held valid federal work permits when CBP pulled their clearances.

CBP quietly changed the rules, union says

The lawsuit says CBP narrowed its definition of “authorized residency” with no public notice and no formal rulemaking. Under the old approach, a valid federal work permit was enough to qualify for a seal.

Under the new one, the suit says, TPS holders and asylum applicants no longer qualify. CBP then applied that new standard retroactively, pulling seals from workers who already had them.

The union calls the change arbitrary and says CBP gave no adequate explanation for the shift.

Two federal laws sit at the heart of the case

The complaint says CBP broke two laws. First, it allegedly violated the Administrative Procedure Act by changing its policy without following the required notice-and-comment process.

Second, the lawsuit claims Fifth Amendment due process violations because workers got little to no warning before losing their clearances.

The workers say they had no meaningful chance to challenge the revocations before their jobs disappeared.

The plaintiffs want the court to declare the policy unlawful, restore their seals, and require CBP to give workers advance notice and a hearing before revoking clearances going forward.

A 27-year Logan worker lost her job in 2025

Raquel Molina, 65, is one of the four named plaintiffs.

A Boston resident who immigrated from El Salvador, she worked at Logan for 27 years before CBP revoked her seal in 2025.

She holds Temporary Protected Status and had valid work authorization at the time, according to the complaint. Molina has not been able to find comparable work since losing her airport job.

CBP told one worker he was an “unacceptable risk”

Saint Paul Paul, 58, came to the U.S. from Haiti in 2018. He has TPS, a pending asylum case, and work authorization through 2029, according to the suit.

He worked as an airline cabin cleaner at Logan for about three years before CBP revoked his seal in June 2025. A letter from CBP told him he was deemed an “unacceptable risk.”

He has since taken lower-paying work at a restaurant, the lawsuit says.

Two more workers join the complaint

Ana Lemus, another plaintiff, also held an airport service job that required a customs seal. She says she never received written notice explaining why CBP pulled it, according to the complaint.

Daysi Rocha-Cruz, the fourth plaintiff, was told her seal was revoked for an alleged immigration law violation, the filing says. Details about both women come from the lawsuit itself.

Neither CBP nor DHS has responded publicly to requests for comment from news outlets covering the case.

Fired DHS secretary named as defendant

The suit names former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott as defendants, along with several CBP port directors at the five airports.

President Trump fired Noem on March 5, 2026, more than a week before the lawsuit was filed. The complaint names her for policies carried out during her time in office.

Trump has nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to take over, with the transition set for March 31 pending Senate confirmation.

Customs seal program goes back four decades

The customs seal program has been part of federal airport security since 1986. CBP updated the rules after the Sept. 11 attacks, with revisions published in 2002.

Under the system as it worked for decades, CBP issued seals once employers completed background checks on their workers.

The union argues that employers, airlines, airport authorities, and workers have all relied on that established process for years.

According to the lawsuit, CBP had never before used the seal system to exclude immigrants with temporary protections and valid work permits.

Case could affect airports across the country

The case now sits in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Yale clinic lawyers expect the government to respond within 30 to 60 days.

SEIU, which represents about 40,000 airport workers nationally, says it filed the suit to stop the revocations and get affected workers their jobs back.

The outcome could shape how CBP applies customs seal rules to legally authorized immigrant workers at airports across the country.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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