(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)Earlier this month, Chicago journalist Stephen Held revealed that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) suspended his and his wife’s TSA PreCheck after he was arrested by Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) last September. In a Bluesky post from March 4, Held included a letter he received from TSA after his arrest informing him that his TSA PreCheck and Global Entry eligibility had been revoked. Held suspects that the government is weaponizing even “something as trivial as TSA PreCheck” to dissuade protesting or covering the Trump administration’s actions. When Held’s wife checked her status online, it still says she is eligible for TSA PreCheck. A coalition of 46 press freedom groups sent a letter demanding Rodriguez’s release accusing the Trump administration of political retaliation.

Source: Huffington Post March 17, 2026 20:18 UTC