American travelers are outraged by signs appearing at US airports that appear to allow immigrants to board flights without showing proper identification.
US citizens traveling domestically need to show a valid ID or passport to board a plane, but signs at certain airports state there are different rules for some newly arrived immigrants.
The signs claim the Transportation Security Administration is working with Customs and Border Protection to “verify the travel documentation of non-US citizen adults when the traveler does not have an acceptable form of identification.”
In practice, this means that immigrants who have entered the country using the CBP One app – about 45,000 people a month – can use it as their travel document and also choose whether to allow officers to take their picture.
American travelers are outraged by signs appearing at airports that appear to allow immigrants to board flights without showing proper identification. AFP via Getty Images
Retired CBP Chief Patrol Agent Chris Clem told The Post that this creates bad optics.
“I’m an American citizen and I’m quite offended that immigrants who come here get preferential treatment and are favored in many ways,” he said.
“The rest of us pay the price at the gas pump and grocery store. Taxes go up. However [the US is] continue to bring many people [in].”
“[The Administration’s mentality is] to try and make it the most humane and enjoyable experience for these poor people in distress because it’s such an ordeal to navigate American airports…but you’ve got to be kidding, many of them just came from the Middle East, through seven countries, using an app to get here, and we’re supposed to believe Phoenix Airport might be very useful for them … bullshit!”
Passengers line up at Denver International Airport. AP
Those entering the country through the CBP One application must provide biometric information such as fingerprints and be photographed when they are interviewed at the border before being admitted to the US.
However, Clem said authorities still only have basic information about individuals at that point, and asked how authorities can be sure people are who they say they are if they arrive at the border without a passport or ID card.
“We base everything on what these people tell us and a minimal information system,” he said.
“Do we really know who they are? Did they use the app or did the smuggler do it all for them?
US citizens traveling within the country must present a valid identification card or passport to board the aircraft. Getty Images
“If you’re a notorious criminal, the chances of you giving the same name when coming to another country are pretty low unless you’re a stupid criminal.
“There are so many questions we don’t have answers to worry about.”
Many reporters at the border have posted photos of ID cards, passports and visas for travel through the country being thrown away at the border, often by people who do not want their real identities known to US authorities.
TSA, CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not respond to questions from The Post.
People wait for their relatives outside the Guatemala City airport. Reuters
CBP has insisted those who have entered the country are screened using biographical and biometric information, and those released have provided photographs, Fox News reported.
A sign depicting a separate process for immigrants also says the vetting scheme is still a pilot and being tested, rather than a permanent fixture.
Last month, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for more information about the screening of immigrants who have crossed the border through the CBP One application as they boarded flights.
“Although Americans must present an acceptable form of identification to fly, or at least have their identity verified, TSA allows illegal immigrants without ID to choose an alternative identity verification process using the application…’CBP One’,” Cruz wrote in the letter, saying the process that “takes illegal aliens at their word” on certain data and allows them to obtain DHS documents and fly out of the airport.
CBP has insisted that those who have entered the country are screened using biographical and biometric information. AP
“In reality, the TSA uses one standard to verify the identity of American citizens, and another, weaker standard to ‘verify’ the identity of unauthorized aliens. This is worrying.”
Cruz, the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, also pointed out that immigrants who do not have passports or verifiable forms of identification may also be inadvertently verified by the system, if false names and dates of birth are received by CBP and then printed on government-issued identification cards.
“TSA may use his unverified name and date of birth in CBP One to verify his identity, even though the person is actually a terrorist or other criminal traveling under a false identity,” he wrote.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
