Immigration groups demand crackdown on migrants boarding planes

Border security experts are demanding that Congress use an upcoming debate over the Federal Aviation Administration to pass legislation that would make it tougher for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to get on airplanes without using identity documents from their native countries.

Under the Biden administration, the Transportation Security Administration has allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to board using the documents they are given in the catch-and-release process — documents that critics say are far less secure than the passports and driver’s licenses Americans are asked to show.

The groups, in a letter being released Monday, said that must change.

They said the government allows undocumented immigrants to claim whatever identity they want at the border and — unless their fingerprints match a crime already committed in the U.S. — that’s the identity the government assigns them on the catch-and-release documents.

“There is no process for verifying that the name they provide is their actual name, or that they do not have a criminal record in their home country,” said the Immigration Accountability Project, which is leading the letter joined by other immigration groups and high-profile experts such as Mark Morgan, former acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, and Thomas Homan, former acting director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The airplane issue is one of the more visible aspects of the border chaos — and to Mr. Biden’s critics, it’s one of the more galling ones.

“Today, no U.S. citizen or lawful immigrant or nonimmigrant may board an aircraft traveling to or within the United States without presenting a photo ID or completing an onerous identity verification process. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and unvetted parolees are being permitted to board aircraft traveling to or within the United States based purely on the biographic information they choose to provide on the CBP-One app or to the Border Patrol agents processing them,” the immigration groups said.

Congressional Republicans have introduced legislation designed to block migrants from boarding planes unless they have a more secure identification such as their home country passport.

A bill written by Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, would bar migrants from using for boarding identification a Notice to Appear, which is an immigration court summons; a Notice to Report, which is a future check-in date with ICE; or a parole document, which is a temporary pass to be in the U.S.

Many migrants arriving at the border want to get deeper into the U.S., figuring to meet up with family or look for work. Some take buses or pay for a ride but many hop on a plane, aided by Homeland Security’s policies.

The department, which oversees the borders and the TSA, told The Associated Press last month that it was instituting a new facial recognition check for migrants.

If they didn’t use a valid ID such as their passport, they had to undergo facial recognition. That would check to make sure the person attempting to board matched the identity of the person who showed up at the border, though it’s unclear how it would solve the issue of migrants using bogus identities at the border itself.

The AP reported in March that the change was blocking some migrants from boarding planes. But one migrant woman told the news service she was able to board easily after allowing officers to photograph her at the TSA checkpoint.

In the new letter Monday, the groups said the upcoming congressional debate over reauthorizing programs within the FAA is the right place to have a debate about who’s boarding the planes.

“The stated mission of the FAA is ‘to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.’ The United States learned the hard way on September 11, 2001, that we must put primary emphasis on ‘safest’ when it comes to air travel,” the letter said.