Daily Mail
Elizabeth Elkind
December 12, 2022
House Republicans are warning the Biden administration that its plan to utilize US Air Marshals along the southern border will put ‘the lives and safety of airline passengers at risk’ over the holidays, according to a Monday letter obtained first by DailyMail.com.
Ohio GOP Rep. Mike Carey is leading a request for more information to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees both Customs and Border Patrol as well as the Transportation Security Agency – which runs the Federal Air Marshal Service.
Carey’s letter lists a series of questions for Mayorkas about the plan, including ‘an estimate of the cost’ of sending Air Marshals to the border, what they’re working on, and what – if any – public safety evaluation was done before taking action.
The letter is co-signed by six other Republican members of Congress.
‘As we enter one of the busiest travel times of the year, it is imperative that we have every Federal Air Marshal tending to their actual job rather than assisting in a problem your administration created and continues to ignore,’ the lawmakers stated.
They also raise concerns about how the Biden administration’s impending rollback of the COVID pandemic-era Title 42 expulsion policy would exacerbate the record surge of people trying to cross the border.
Air Marshals are armed federal agents who are tasked with anonymously riding commercial airline flights, in case an emergency threat arises.
There are an estimated 3,000 Air Marshals in the United States.
Biden’s plan would reduce the force covering flights to just an eighth of its normal operating size, according to the Washington Examiner. That’s reportedly about one Air Marshal on every 100 flights.
Pulling Air Marshals out of the skies to help ease the migrant crisis is ‘creating a massive risk to public safety,’ Carey’s letter said, with barely three weeks until airline travel is expected to surge for the end-of-year holiday season.
A federal judge ruled recently that President Joe Biden must end Title 42 – which allows border agents to turn asylum-seekers away on contact in the name of slowing the spread of COVID-19 – by the end of December 21.
‘Many of us have been to the southern border and have seen the major issues underway and know of the ripple effect it has on our country,’ the letter stated.
‘The Administration’s lenient immigration policies, including the proposed revocation of Title 42, have led to record-setting encounters at the southern border.
‘By failing to take steps to secure our country and further encouraging illegal migrant crossings, the Administration is draining the limited resources of every branch of federal law enforcement.’
This year’s Christmas and New Years holidays will be the first since 2019 to see travelers fly largely without COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
Thanksgiving travelers were projected to number over 54 million, according to AAA, a rise that nearly matches pre-pandemic levels.
While navigating a surge in travel as the industry still struggles to meet demand, DHS is also dealing with a record surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The number of people encountered by Border Patrol has risen to record levels since Biden took office.
‘The Federal Air Marshal Service was created with the goal of stopping threats to aviation, not responding to a humanitarian crisis,’ the House GOP letter stated.
‘Utilizing the men and women of the Air Marshal Service at the southern border puts the lives and safety of airline passengers at risk.’
Carey demanded that Mayorkas provide answers by the end of the year about the ‘projected impact to public safety’ and how DHS will ‘ensure the safety of passengers aboard commercial aircrafts now that many Federal Air Marshals are no longer working in their positions.’
Mayorkas is expected to be among a lengthy list of investigative targets when House Republicans take their chamber’s majority next year.
It’s not immediately clear if GOP lawmakers will take harsher measures to get answers on the Monday letter when they have subpoena power starting in January.
The Examiner first reported in late November that Air Marshals were planning to ‘refuse to deploy’ to the border ‘and risk termination.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to DHS and the TSA for comment.
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