[Just The News] U.S. airline passengers are facing unnecessary security risks as they head into the busy holiday travel season because federal efforts to resettle illegal migrants around the country are bypassing well-established security tactics, a Texas congressman says.Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) says illegal migrants are being provided letters asking the Transportation Security Agency to allow them to skip normal ID verification requirements because they lack official documents, instead being put through an alternate security screening process that checks luggage and ensures they aren't carrying dangerous objects.
Gooden provided Just the News one such letter provided a 46-year-old Honduran migrant who was allowed to travel from San Diego, where he had been detained, to Louisiana earlier this year.
"The individual(s) standing in front of you have recently been discharged from a U.S. immigration detention facility and must cross the country to present themselves for an ICE check-in approximately two weeks from now," the letter read. "They are currently showing you all of their identifications in their possession, which should be adequate for them to be able to be searched in Secure Flight."
The congressman added some U.S. air marshals have told his office they have arrived on what are supposed to be empty planes for a preboarding security sweep, only to find a migrant already pre-boarded.
"We've had several reports of some air marshals, you know, air marshals, when they board a flight, they have to go and identify themselves to the pilot and the crew, 'Hey, I'm armed, I'm going to be on your flight,'" he said. "Typically, that happens before anyone boards, in some cases they've boarded. And ... these packet holders, I'll call them, are already seated in their seats.