The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) revealed recently that illegal migrants without proper ID could enter the US by using arrest warrants to identify themselves.
This information was revealed after a claim by a TSA whistleblower that the agency was permitting the migrants onto commercial airlines using the warrants.
The discovery prompted Tex Rep Lance Gooden to send a letter to the Administration. Gooden told the Daily Mail in a statement that the TSA’s response to him confirms that they are allowing “unknown and unvetted immigrants” into the country, and that the Biden administration was “knowingly putting our country at risk.”
In response to the controversy, TSA Administrator David Pekoske that under the circumstances, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents could be used as valid forms of identification. These include a Warrant for Arrest of an Alien, Warrant of Removal/Deportation, Order of Release on Recognizance, an Order of Supervision, a Notice to Appear, and Arrival and Departure form or an Alien Booking Record, reports the Daily Caller.
These forms of ID can all be utilized in the absence of government-issued ID or passports.
Over 150 people fly in the United States using these types of documents every day, the DHS estimates.
In response, Pekoske said that the TSA “is committed to ensuring that all travelers, regardless of immigration status, are pre-screened before they arrive at the airport, have their pre-screening status and identification verified at security checkpoints, and receive appropriate screening based on risk before entering the sterile area of the airport.”
According to the BBC, The number of undocumented migrants reaching the US-Mexico border has hit the highest level in more than 20 years, and the exact number of illegals in the United States is difficult to predict, with conservative estimates putting the figure at around 11 million. Some estimates more than double that figure. A Customs and Border Protection report said that in 2021 alone, almost 2 million migrants “came into contact with immigration enforcement.”
The 2021 figure shows a significant increase from 646,000 when President Trump was still in office.
Over 60 percent of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers at the southern border were expelled from the US under Title 42, which allows for the expulsion of illegal immigrants during a public health emergency, such as COVID.
The Daily Mail reports: “Of the 1,956,519 migrants, there were 1.72 million CBP encounters that resulted in either expulsion under the CDC’s Title 42 public health authority or processing as Title 8 immigration enforcement cases.”
Those encounters, however, are likely just a fraction of the actual number of individuals are attempting to cross the border.
The statement continues: “About one in eight border encounters involved a person previously encountered during the prior year. However, since CBP began expelling non-citizens under the CDC’s Title 42 public health order to limit the spread of COVID-19, the repeat encounter rate jumped to more than one in three encounters, including almost half of single adult encounters.”
“Thus, while total enforcement encounters increased 82 percent between 2019 (the last pre-pandemic year) and 2021, the number of unique individuals encountered at the border increased 30 percent.”
