Bill to Ban Illegal Immigrants from Using Arrest Warrants to Board Planes Hits Senate
On the grounds that arrest warrants should be used to arrest people and not ferry them about the country, a Republican senator has introduced a bill that would end the practice of allowing illegal immigrants to use their arrest warrants as a form of identification when boarding commercial airplanes.
The “Crime Doesn’t Fly Act of 2022” was introduced Monday by Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana in response to reports that the Transportation Security Agency allows arrest warrants to be used by illegal immigrants as they bop about the country.
“It’s pretty simple — if an illegal immigrant presents their own arrest warrant as a form of ID, they should be immediately arrested, not cleared by TSA to hop on a plane in the United States,” Daines said, according to his website.
“The fact this is even an issue is beyond outrageous,” Daines said. “This is a threat to our national security and it must be stopped immediately.”
A companion bill was introduced in the House by Republican Reps. Nicole Malliotakis of New York and Rodney Davis of Illinois, which has attracted multiple co-sponsors.
“Biden wants you to present a vaccine passport and ID to enter a restaurant, but he is letting illegal immigrants on airplanes with no ID except an arrest warrant.” @RepMaryMiller pic.twitter.com/6ujOSsEoU7
— CPI (@CPInst) January 27, 2022
Allowing illegal immigrants to use arrest warrants is a national security nightmare, Malliotakis said, according to a news release on her website.
“If we learned anything from the Sept. 11 attacks, it’s that our federal agencies must be diligent in screening passengers to ensure those flying don’t pose a terrorist or criminal threat to themselves or other passengers on board,” Malliotakis said.
“Allowing illegal immigrants, particularly those with arrest and deportation warrants, to board domestic or international flights is a public safety and national security risk of the highest extreme and against the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission,” she said.
Davis said the bedrock issue is that people in this country illegally should be expelled, not catered to.
“Anyone who is in our country illegally should not be allowed to travel throughout the United States unless they’re being deported,” he said.
It is “time for Congress to re-assert its authority because President Biden’s reckless open border immigration policies are a harm to families everywhere,” Davis said.
The TSA does not deny the practices, according to Fox News.
“For noncitizens and non-U.S. nationals who do not otherwise have acceptable forms of ID for presentation at security checkpoints, TSA may also accept certain DHS-issued forms, including ICE Form I-200 (Warrant for Arrest of an Alien),” a TSA spokesperson told Fox News. The I-200 form refers to a civil immigration arrest warrant provided by federal agencies.
Once TSA validates the information, illegal immigrants can take to the skies.
Republican Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, a co-sponsor of the House bill, said Republicans are trying to “reinstate common sense in our immigration system,” according to a news release on his website.
“This swift action of putting together this bill and introducing it in Congress shows the commitment of Republicans in cleaning up the open-border policies of the Biden Administration. Individuals with deportation or arrest warrants should be arrested at TSA checkpoints, not allowed to travel across the country,” he said.
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