For anyone who has been forced to remove their shoes, put their hands up inside a scanning machine, or, in some cases, patted down like a common criminal, the following isn’t going to ease their mind or tamp down their anger.
While American citizens are being forced to obtain “Real IDs” before May 7, 2025, to fly, those who enter the country illegally will face no such burden if current government policies remain in place. And now, some lawmakers are asking why.
In a March 20, 2024, letter sent to TSA Director David Pekoske, Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, he asked why illegal aliens are allowed to use the government-facilitated CBP One app, which uses unverified biographical information supplied to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).
“TSA is reportedly allowing aliens without verifying identity documents to pass through airport security checkpoints nationwide,” Pekoske wrote. Instead, the TSA is “relying on unverified biographical information gathered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through the CBP One application (CBP One),” the letter continued.
The program allows illegal aliens to go through TSA checkpoints with minimal identification, while American citizens and legal immigrants are forced to subject themselves to sometimes humiliating screening.
The revelation about illegals having greater freedom to travel a mere 23 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks has many people up in arms, including the Air Marshal National Council, who are trying to put pressure on Pekoske to address this along with other national security issues.
In addition to the requirement to have TSA-approved photo identification, some airports utilize facial recognition technology as a “security enhancement” at 60 airports nationwide. The scanners are called Credential Authentication Technology (CAT-2) scanners, and there are plans to expand the program to “400 federalized airports over the coming years.”
While flyers can opt out of the biometric scanners at TSA checkpoints, that is beside the point. The ability to opt-out needs to be publicized since no visible signage advising Americans of the same is available at the checkpoints. Given how “friendly” many TSA officers are, most Americans would no doubt be afraid to question the requirement.
Conservative commentator, Dave Rubin took a picture at an airport checkpoint and posted it on X that shows a sign notifying illegal aliens of their option to validate using CBP One. The sign reads:
“TSA is partnering with CBP to test the use of CBP One at certain TSA checkpoints to validate adult non-U.S. citizen travel documentation when the traveler does not otherwise have an acceptable form of identification.” [emphasis added]
It goes on to give instructions on how the program works.
According to UncoverDC, the CBP One app is used not only at airports but also at ports of entry with the excuse that it makes the “immigration process more efficient.” The app allows illegal aliens to schedule an appointment with CBP so they can immediately gain parole. They are then released into the U.S. and, in most cases, are never seen again until they commit a crime. Statistics show that about 35 percent never attend their immigration status hearing, but the number is probably much higher.
The Biden administration claims the parole programs are a way to encourage “lawful” entry into the United States, however, that has led to over eight million illegals invading our country since Biden took office. The program was initially started for those from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela; however, it has now been expanded to almost every country in the world.
Despite the fact that accurate identification from other countries is questionable at best, TSA is still accepting the information provided to obtain the CBP One app, much of it self-reported. In Green’s letter, he writes that much of the information collected for the app is “self-reported and may not be sufficient to verify the identity of the alien [and] is the foundational data subsequently used to confirm an alien’s identity by other agencies, including TSA.”
As a result of a FOIA lawsuit, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has confirmed that over 320,000 “inadmissible aliens” were flown to 43 American airports in 2023 alone. However, TSA has stonewalled and refuses to provide details of which airports participated in the program, both here and abroad. TSA’s excuse for refusing to release the information is laughable:
“[T]he public can’t know the receiving airports because those hundreds of thousands of CBP-authorized arrivals have created such ‘operational vulnerabilities’ at airports that ‘bad actors’ could undermine law enforcement efforts to ‘secure the United States border’ if they knew the volume of CBP One traffic processed at each port of entry.”
Last October, Green’s committee received some of the requested documents on the use of the CBP One app, with the initial request filed last June. The documents cover the period between Jan. 12, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2023. They showed that “overall, 95.8 percent of all inadmissible aliens who scheduled appointments through the app during this time were ultimately issued a ‘Notice to Appear’ (NTA) and released into the United States on parole.”
As bad as the parole program and CBP One app is, it actually is much worse. According to a Washington Examiner article that was confirmed by Rep. Green, “cartels are using virtual private networks (VPN) to skirt requirements that aliens signing up for appointments at ports of entry via CBP One be present in northern Mexico before making the appointment. Using these VPNs, the cartels can exploit vulnerabilities in the app and schedule appointments for individuals regardless of their location–all for a fee–and they advertise this ‘service’ on social media.”
In other words, this is yet another way, along with human trafficking and fentanyl trafficking, that the Biden administration is enriching Mexican cartels.
The Homeland Security Committee expressed concern that the biographical information obtained from illegal aliens “may be insufficient to screen and vet individuals for potential security concerns.”
According to former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott:
“The vetting process has critical limitations,” noting that various countries do not cooperate by sharing “law enforcement data.” He also said that illegal aliens dispose of their actual identification documents and “create new, unverifiable identities.”
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