TSA allowing illegal migrants to fly without proper documents
 

TSA Violating Rules

So safety really isn't Job #1 at TSA!

Why should I have to produce ID when I am a known traveler by both the airline I use and by TSA due to collected history?

Something is wrong with this picture!

Your first sentence assumes that having ID has anything to do with airplane safety. It doesn't.

The thing wrong is that they require you to show ID — not that they don't require it from others. Don't endorse a "it's good so long as everyone gets violated" framing.

Most will use their passports or national ID cards from wherever they're from. The rag that is the Washington Examiner only gave a list of some IDs that a US citizen would use. There's no mention of what foreign travelers use when traveling on domestic flights.

I don't think ID matters a bit but TSA has stated that ID Matters. So it must be true!

The question is why doesn't ID Matter all the time? Either it does or doesn't. Can't have it both ways TSA!

From TSA:

Acceptable ID for TSA

Identification

Adult passengers 18 and over must show valid identification at the airport checkpoint in order to travel.Driver's licenses or other state photo identity cards issued by Department of Motor Vehicles (or equivalent)

• U.S. passport
• U.S. passport card
• DHS trusted traveler cards (Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST)
• U.S. Department of Defense ID, including IDs issued to dependents
• Permanent resident card
• Border crossing card
• DHS-designated enhanced driver's license
• Federally recognized, tribal-issued photo ID
• HSPD-12 PIV card
• Foreign government-issued passport
• Canadian provincial driver's license or Indian and Northern Affairs Canada card
• Transportation worker identification credential
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Authorization Card (I-766)
• U.S. Merchant Mariner Credential

People who have lost/had ID stolen travel domestically by air regularly. They do a more detailed screening, but they're not prohibited from flying.

It would be good if you had copied the entire section into the post rather than a selective part. TSA routinely clears people who lack valid ID, it simply goes through an in depth verification process and some additional screening. Don't fall into the trap set by the Examiner.

In the event you arrive at the airport without valid identification, because it is lost or at home, you may still be allowed to fly. The TSA officer may ask you to complete an identity verification process which includes collecting information such as your name, current address, and other personal information to confirm your identity. If your identity is confirmed, you will be allowed to enter the screening checkpoint. You will be subject to additional screening, to include a patdown and screening of carry-on property.

You will not be allowed to enter the security checkpoint if your identity cannot be confirmed, you chose to not provide proper identification or you decline to cooperate with the identity verification process.

I think most of us are familiar with the above verbiage.

What's not clear is how TSA verifies the paperless individual's identity. How do you confirm the name, birth date, home address (outside the US), etc. I suspect the average undocumented immigrants won't have a Costco card with their name, address, photo and birth date - or any other legitimate form of ID that a TSO would recognize.

Bottom line is they make do with all that was ever actually necessary for aviation security, just like folks everywhere else in the world do: they hassle the pax and then verify that the pax and his/her belongings don't include any physical threats to aviation security and they let them through.

As stated in the article, TSA is accepting an I-862 (notice to appear in court) as ID. These do not have a photo so it could be anyone presenting it. Of course these people have no US credit history, so the usual method of asking questions from a credit report doesn't work either.

The only security-related purpose of checking IDs is to enforce the no-fly list, and I highly doubt that any refugees coming in from the southern border are going to be on that list, so I don't think this is too much of a concern. Revenue protection for the airlines is their problem, not the government's.

How does TSA vet an unknown person who has no current address or other available personal information? If people can't see the gaping hole in this process then working in any security field is probably ill advised.

So TSA proves in its actions that ID is not needed for security screening. An inspection for not having prohibited items is all that is actually required.

How does TSA's checking ID help enforce the no-fly list when TSA does not directly compare ID to any database?

This is another question that TSA as never been able to answer.

This makes me feel very unsafe.

TSA does not play 'probabilities'. They constantly remind us that it's important to check genitals and breast milk and medicines and breast cancer survivors because it only takes one time and you just never know. They also stress the importance of an ID check for security reasons that they have never disclosed, because no other country I've been to thinks who you are matters if you haven't got anything threatening on you or in your bags.

TSA are the security experts. They said valid ID is critical to aviation safety and I take their word for it, so I am mystified that this group of known law-breakers gets a pass while ordinary citizens are harassed under the same circumstances. I show up with a 367-day old DL with a picture that still looks exactly like me and I get the full treatment just because the license has expired.

The key here is that the individual has previously been in federal custody. At that time extensive biometric data was obtained, making identity verification quite easy by fingerprints, facial recognition or dna. In all likelihood there is more confidence in the identity of these individuals than that of anyone merely presenting paper id.

Where are these folks coming from? If you're talking folks from way south of the border, I sincerely doubt there's much in the way of DNA or fingerprint evidence available on record in their home countries.

The bottom line is that TSA is disregarding its own insistence on the importance of verifiable government photo ID. They're basically saying that because they can physically clear these folks and any belongings at the checkpoint, they are no threat to aviation security.

They can clear me and my gear just as thoroughly (and do), but they'll rake me over the coals if I have an valid government-issued photo ID that is a year out of date but still clearly recognizable as me. Next year, they're going to make my life miserable if I show up with the same DL that they accept today because it will no longer meet the RealID requirements.

Just like that - I'll be able to fly with my DL one day, and the very next day I will no longer be allowed to pass unchallenged with that same ID.

And yet these folks get on with a piece of paper? How do the TSO's 'vet' that piece of paper?

Eh, I'm not going to put too much stock into this sort of yellow journalism.

The author of the article starts off with the common misconception that asylum seekers are illegal migrants. Putting 'illegal migrants' in the headline, when in fact it's perfectly legal under both international and US law to enter the US for the purpose of claiming asylum shows this is an article with a xenophobic political agenda. They continue with the sensationalist tone throughout the article, with their main source being cherry-picked portions of the TSA webpage. Because I'm sure the portions of the webpage they pick out (and not the other portions they don't cite) are the definitive and up to date statement of TSA policy :rolleyes:

Who really knows the character of the people crossing the border?

As this article states (yes, I recognize the source isn't respected):

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/924413...mexico-border/

and this:

https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/06/...-texas-border/

Quote:

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Border Patrol Catches 116 Africans at Texas Border

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Bottom line with over one million people who have knowingly crossed the border just this month plus some unknown number of people who have crossed undetected this is no time to use relaxed or questionable security standards at airports.

Or it's time to admit what the rest of the world already knows: it doesn't matter who you are - if your bags and your person have been cleared, you are no threat to aviation safety. The ID check and the RealID have more to do with government oversight of citizens and kickbacks from the contractors who are benefitting from forcing people to get a RealID.

Either identity is a crucial component of aviation safety or it isn't. There's no middle ground, and it's appalling that TSA gives the breaks to the people who least deserve it while doubling down on folks who are guilty of nothing more than wanting to get on an airplane.

I'm sure you're aware of this by now, but I'll answer it anyway. The airline checks your name against the no-fly database, and then the TSA makes sure that the name on your ticket, which was checked against the database, is actually the name of the person getting on the plane.

TSA definitely plays probabilities. The best example is Pre-Check, where they give expedited screening to those who have lower probability of carrying contraband. Other things like random secondary searches are also based on probabilities.

I think a one-year grace period is perfectly reasonable. They have to draw the line somewhere, otherwise people will try to fly with a 10-year old ID and insist it still looks like them.

That is the case for almost all foreigners. Even if there is DNA or fingerprint evidence available on record in their home countries, TSA doesn't have access to it.

Blame Congress for that, not the TSA.

Article seems a little breathless to me. Which I would expect from the Washington Examiner.
But fundamentally, if these migrants are attempting to board domestic flights, they should be required to go through the same protocol as any other traveler. If they can't, take the bus or train or drive.
If however they're trying to fly to their country of origin, is the Examiner implying we shouldn't allow that until they acquire proper ID? In other words, until they attain citizenship? I would think the Examiner would be happy to see the back of them and the sooner, the better.
​​​​​Would this be an intelligent policy or simply a bureaucratic knee-jerk response that the rules must be followed, even if these rules, having not anticipated this particular circumstance, are utterly in conflict with a more overarching policy?

And no one has ever thought of having a sanitized name and fake ID in order to avoid basic security methods.

The truth is that if they treat everyone who doesn't present an ID as a selectee, matching against the no-fly list becomes somewhat unnecessary. The premise of the no-fly list is that there are certain people who are just too dangerous to fly. That isn't necessarily a premise based in reality. (Individuals are downgraded from the no-fly list to the selectee on occasion, for example).

I do blame Congress for most of the stupidity in our laws, but I also have to blame TSA for their own stupidity in the application of those laws.

In the case of RealID, my memory is a little fuzzy - is TSA's stance that non-compliant DLs will no longer be accepted as valid ID for flying specifically dictated by a law, or is it their own policy based on the RealID act?

You don't have to have US citizenship to have valid ID. However, since people who have been vetted and pose no threat are required to show valid ID to board a plane (something which provides no security benefit whatsoever), it's unfair that a whole group of people who are, by definition, nearly impossible to properly vet, should be exempted from the ID requirements for the sake of convenience.

TSA has policies in place for people who don't have valid ID - they're screened more 'thoroughly' (read: more invasively and abusively). But that's a lot of work for TSA. Using these 'notice to appear' documents as ID is a transparent form of laziness on TSA's part, a way of getting them out of fully screening all of the people in question under the no-ID policy.

The article did seem a little fearmongerish to me. But I agree in principal that TSA should be applying the same rules to all travelers with impartial consistency, and not only have they rarely done so throughout their existence, but this latest episode is a more glaring example of a whole group of people getting special treatment. Not only that, but they're getting that special treatment for the most ridiculous and frivolous of reasons: for TSA's convenience, not the travelers'.

We've discussed that particular logical fallacy ad nauseum here, but I think it bears repeating. ID doesn't matter, because it's far too easy to obtain fraudulent documents that allow an individual to obtain a real ID under an assumed name. Even with the RealID standards, it's not terribly difficult to use false documents to obtain an ID with a clean, assumed name, that would allow Osama Bin Laden himself to board a plane under the pseudonym Chuck Finley. You know, theoretically, and if he wasn't dead.

I'm sure the orders to take these lesser documents came down from on high and filtered down through DHS and TSA.
Apparently these highly placed individuals didn't get the memo that "ID MATTERS".

If you want to know about TSA's policies around ID, and how they check people who don't have ID:
1. papersplease.com
2. Google "IVCC SOP", eg https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chec...enter-sop.html

You mean the "chance" the screener finds the person attractive?

Because ID is really for the airlines, not security (as you probably already know). The ID cross check with boarding passes makes tickets non-transferable, which lets airlines sell tickets at different prices at different times. Actual security just requires screening to keep weapons off planes (not that the TSA is particularly good at that, either).

Back before this RealID stuff, my state allowed driver license renewals by mail. What they wanted was the $$$, it is a revenue thing. I renewed my DL twice by mail, and they used the old original photo. By the time I had to get it replaced, the photo on my DL was pushing 20 years old. Yet it was considered a safe ID. Yes I kinda still looked like that poor quality old photo, but still. . .

All one can gather here is law abiding citizens have to go theu hoops while undocumented persons can pass thru with relatively easier time ?

No HMPS. If you want the same thing, just go to the airport without showing ID.

My nephew got his first passport at age 10. He's 14 now. It will be replaced next year. Meantime, he looks nothing like the little kid in that photo. He has no other state issued ID (unavailable in my state if under 15 years old). I'm traveling with him internationally tomorrow and all I can figure is to bring copies of his last five class photos in case he's questioned about it.

Although the airlines certainly benefit from the ID requirement, I disagree that airline revenue protection is the sole purpose of the ID requirement.

After 9/11, it was determined that only ticketed passengers should be allowed past the security checkpoint, for two reasons:
1) Reducing the number of people in the sterile area theoretically reduced the odds of Bad Actors getting through to a plane
2) Reducing the number of people being screened at security checkpoints eased the burden on the newly-created TSA, which shortened long security lines and allowed them to focus only on people who were actually getting on a plane

However, after that restriction was put into place, a number of incidents throughout the 2000s showed that it was ridiculously easy to pick up a discarded boarding pass and gain entry to the sterile area using someone else's ticket. In fact, one person was apprehended with numerous BPs in his backpack, most from flights that had already departed, many from previous days - they got him into the sterile area, because TSA was lax in checking the dates and times on the BP to determine its validity. The BPs were also in other peoples' names, leading to the question, "How can TSA know whether that's really YOUR boarding pass?" And so, the requirement to show ID that matches the BP was born, not for revenue protection, but out of a vague, undefined sense of fear that someone traveling under an assumed name is "up to no good" and poses some sort of threat to aviation security. Coupled with the outlandish notion that showing ID somehow roots out terrorists and criminals (as if they all have the word Terrorist stamped on their IDs or something), this convinced the general public that ID requirements were a genuine security measure.

The holes in the logical arguments are clear, starting with the fact that it's so easy to obtain falsified documents and use them to obtain genuine IDs under false names, and leading up to the realization that even if you travel under an assumed name with false ID, you still have to undergo exactly the same security screening as everybody else, making the ID requirement absolutely useless anyway.

The airlines never protested the ID requirements, because they do derive a benefit from it. But they're not the drivers behind it, and don't deserve the blame. The blame rests in two places - the flim-flam men at TSA who constantly repeat the false mantra that "ID Matters!", and the general public, for being gullible and paranoid enough to actually buy the lie. But I'm not going to lay this one at the feet of the airlines.

Speaking of which, the uproar at the TSA twitter site over this is both sad and comical, showing the gullibility and paranoia of the general public.

You basically just explained why it's only for the airlines' benefit. The stated purpose from the TSA perspective is different, but the only practical purpose is to prevent ticket transfer.

Up until fairly recently you could even fabricate a BP that would get you past the checkpoint but not onto a plane. That would let you more easily match the ID to the BP and swap airside.

I'm inclined to agree with WillCAD on this. The airlines wanted it, but I think the real mover wasn't paranoid clowns at DHS, I think the real mover was the government's ever-expanding desire to monitor its citizens' every move. That's backed up by potential profits - verifying ID requires tools and tools mean profits for someone. Things like their special little 'black lights', probably priced at ten times the civilian cost and the cute little custom-made (for a price) podia for the TDCs to stand at. Behind the scenes, it requires airlines to feed data to TSA about pax - and TSA spends taxpayer dollars developing and maintaining massive databases of all this information.

It's the Washington Examiner. If the story is true, it's purely by accident.

it is more difficult than it was but still not terribly difficult to spoof a BP for entry through the checkpoints. The TD/ID check point is also another opportunity for a bad actor to get tripped up/caught.

The idea that a bad actor might be tripped up or caught by an ID check is ludicrous on its face.

Bad actors who are, by definition, involved in something illegal, immoral, or violent, prepare for the pressures of their bad actions enough that a simple ID check isn't going to throw them, even if they are traveling under forged papers or assumed identity.

I mean, it's not IMpossible, it COULD happen, it's a THEORETICAL possibility, you don't know, it MIGHT work, MAYBE... But for all practical intents and purposes, ID checks do nothing but keep honest people honest and increase profits for those who make money from false IDs. I've never heard of someone traveling under false ID (fugitive, criminal, smuggler, terrorist, or sex tourist) being caught by a TSA TDC. Or, for that matter, any other type of ID check.