The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) admitted in a letter to a member of Congress this month that illegal immigrants are permitted to use an arrest warrant as identification when moving through airport security.
According to the letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller this week, TSA Administrator David Pekoske told Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) that a number of Department of Homeland Security documents are accepted as appropriate forms of ID for non-citizens, including a “Warrant for Arrest of Alien” and a “Warrant of Removal/Deportation.”
“TSA is committed to ensuring that all travelers, regardless of immigration status, are pre-screened before they arrive to 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,” Pekoske wrote.
Pokoske noted that alien identification numbers from DHS documents are either processed through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection One mobile app or TSA’s National Transportation Vetting Center (NTVC), or both.
The letter added that those who use alternative identification must undergo additional screening. The TSA also said that all passengers are screened through the agency’s Secure Flight program by airport security in order to ensure they are not on a terrorist database or other lists.
“TSA’s response confirms the Biden Administration is knowingly putting our national security at risk,” Gooden told the Daily Caller. “Unknown and unvetted immigrants shouldn’t even be in the country, much less flying without proper identification.”
Gooden previously told the Daily Caller that border patrol agents have said “they often have to take migrants at their word that they are who they say they are” when issuing the DHS documents that are later accepted by the TSA as alternative forms of ID.
The letter also highlighted that between Jan. 1 2021 and Oct. 31 2021, 45,577 non-citizens and non-U.S. nationals seeking validation through their DHS documents were processed using the NTVC, which verified 44,947 of them.
Under President Joe Biden’s administration, federal authorities released more than 100,000 noncitizens detained at the border into the U.S. with instructions to self-report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within 60 days. Of those released, 47,705 failed to show up at an ICE office.
According to the DHS data, between the start of the new notice to report (NTR) program on March 21, 2021 and Aug. 31, 2021, the DHS released 104,171 noncitizens with an NTR. Of those released, 47,705 did not check in with ICE after 60 days.
Another 6,607 did not check in with ICE but were still within their 60-day self-reporting period as of Aug. 31. The DHS did not clarify what has happened to these 6,607 who did not check in within their 60-day reporting period.
Of the 49,859 who did check in with ICE, 37,161 checked in within 60 days, while the remaining 12,698 checked in after 60 days.
Of those 49,859 that did comply with the NTR and reported to an ICE field office, only 16,293 (about 15 percent of the 104,171 total noncitizens that received NTRs) received their subsequent NTA, notifying them of their immigration court date.
