Over a dozen Republican lawmakers, including Texas Rep. Lance Gooden and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, announced legislation to stop TSA from allowing migrants from using certain Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest warrants as alternate forms of identification at airports, according to a Tuesday press release.
The Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively reported that TSA Administrator David Pekoske disclosed to Gooden’s office that several Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents, including an ICE Form I-200, a “Warrant for Arrest of Alien” and an ICE form I-205, a “Warrant of Removal/Deportation,” would be acceptable alternate forms of identification for illegal immigrants to present to airport security.
The ICE documents are considered administrative removal warrants signed by ICE officials who believe a person should be removed from the country. An ICE officer must make the arrest in a public location.
“An illegal immigrant who commits a crime should be arrested and brought before a judge,” Gooden said in a statement Tuesday. “The Biden Administration is instead putting our national security and American families at risk by allowing them to fly on U.S. airlines.”
TSA says it vets the DHS documents through databases available to airport security, including the National Transportation Vetting Center (NTVC) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) One Mobile application, according to Pekoske’s earlier letter to Gooden.
From Jan. 1, 2021 to Oct. 31, 2021 the NTVC processed 45,577 non-citizens and non-U.S. nationals seeking validation of their DHS documents, 44,947 of which had their documents verified through the NTVC, according to the letter.
The letter also stated that TSA used CBP One 60,000 times during that same time period.
“Illegal immigrants should not be able to board flights using warrants for their arrest or deportation, and it is ridiculous that the Biden Administration is allowing this to happen,” Rubio said in the joint press release with Gooden. “Rep. Gooden and I are working on legislation that will put a stop to this insane practice and secure air travel in this country.”
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