In January 2022, something incredible happened: the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirmed that it was allowing illegal immigrants to use arrest warrants as identification to board U.S. flights. No photo ID. No verified information. Just a piece of paper provided by the illegal immigrant.
This blatant mockery of U.S. law provoked immediate outrage from common-sense Americans. But two years later, the TSA's policy stands unchanged. It shows how quickly important issues can fall out of the spotlight.
Thankfully, this year's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill provides an opportunity to scrutinize our government's insane flight rules to appease illegal immigrants. Congress' purpose is clear: we must outlaw the use of arrest warrants as identification.
This task is even more urgent than it was in 2022. Since then, President Joe Biden has released about 7 million more illegal immigrants into the United States, and we're on track to break further border-crossing records this year. In other words, the incentives drawing migrants from all over the world to our doorstep, one of which is surely the freedom to fly across the country with nothing more than an enforcement document from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, are stronger than ever. This has to change if we value our security.
Newspaper headlines are awash with stories about the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, which is using our open border to spread its sex trafficking, murder, robbery, and extortion networks into American cities. Then there is the danger posed by foreign terrorist organizations like ISIS, which are facilitating illegal immigration for their own ominous purposes.
FBI Director Christopher Wray admits the current threat of terrorist attacks is on a "whole other level." At least one ISIS member appears to have evaded government detection in the United States for two years while applying for asylum. And how many other members of terrorist organizations have crossed the border undetected? Under this administration, we just don't know.
This is disturbing on its own merits, but it's especially disturbing in light of the TSA's lax document policy. Lawful U.S. citizens are subject to reasonable photo ID requirements when they fly. But illegal immigrants with potential ties to terrorist organizations or gangs can make do with less? Perhaps the Biden administration's bureaucrats have forgotten why we instituted flight safeguards in the first place: because September 11, 2001 taught us how disastrous it can be to let the wrong people onto planes.
Why hasn't President Biden reversed course on this misguided policy? For that matter, why hasn't he reinstated President Donald Trump's executive orders on immigration or, at the very least, begun enforcing existing laws? The sad reality is that Biden is unwilling to admit Trump was right, and he is unable to buck the open-borders extremists in the Democratic Party's base.
This leaves the American people with the short end of the stick. While our commander in chief makes excuses for inaction, working families must watch migrants overrun their communities, drain their public resources, undercut their wages, and jeopardize their safety. And there is little Congress can do, because even the strongest laws are ineffective when the president is unwilling to execute them.
Nevertheless, Congress can and should outlaw the use of arrest warrants to board flights. Representative Lance Gooden (R-Tex.) and I introduced the SECURE Flights Act to do just that. The Senate has a chance to address this issue as we consider, debate, and hopefully amend the FAA reauthorization bill this week.
Securing flights against illegal immigrants and those this administration is unable or unwilling to properly vet is common sense to most Americans. Democrats, however, are already signaling they will block this basic reform. Only time will tell the outcome, but the American people deserve a sign their leaders are still looking after them, and I hope my colleagues agree to give them one.
Marco Rubio, a Republican, is the senior U.S. senator from Florida.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
