The Biden Administration has quietly ordered Federal Air Marshals to start obligatory deployments to the southern border to assist with a surge in migrant encounters simply as the vacation air journey season begins.
“As part of a DHS wide effort, (LE/FAMS) has been called upon to redeploy Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) to the Southwest Border,” Tirrell Stevenson, Executive Assistant Administrator and Director of the Transportation Security Administration’s Law Enforcement/Federal Air Marshal Service wrote to Air Marshals in a November 14 e mail shared with the Herald.
According to Stevenson’s e mail, it could be “operationally necessary” to assign deployments to Air Marshals from “all field offices and Headquarters assignments” regardless of a historical past of some Marshals voluntarily helping Border Patrol brokers.
“A transparent, equitable and consistent selection process and deployment plan has been developed and agreed to by all LE/FAMS Supervisory Air Marshals in Charge,” Stevenson wrote.
CBP has been coping with a big spike in migrant encounters on the border with Mexico, in keeping with information launched this month. According to CBP, their officers encountered 2 million migrants on the southern border in fiscal 2022, up from 1.7 million encounters in fiscal 2021.
Air Marshals have begun to deploy to the border on a compulsory schedule of 21 day waves, with the second such wave beginning on November 16 and operating by way of December 7, info shared with the Herald confirmed.
According to David Londo, the President of the Air Marshal National Council, these deployments are leaving “a gaping hole in our aviation security.”
“What is happening during the busiest travel time of the year, a time where the homeland has been attacked twice in the past, the shoe and underwear bombers, is irresponsible and dangerous,” he advised the Herald. “As our families board flights this holiday season they will assume the government is doing their job of protecting their flights, but instead the reality is the government is prioritizing the welfare of migrants over their security.”
Londo has filed a criticism in opposition to each Stevenson and TSA Director David Pekoske with Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, wherein he says the choice to deploy Air Marshals, who’re typically considered probably the most elite marksmen in legislation enforcement, to the nation’s southern border is each a waste of their “highly specialized” coaching and a violation of the legislation.
Pekoske and Stevenson are sending Marshals to El Paso, Laredo, and McAllen, Texas, in addition to San Diego, California and Yuma, Arizona, in keeping with Londo. While there, he advised the Inspector General, Marshals are performing “Hospital Watch, Transportation, Law Enforcement Searches, Welfare Checks, and Entry Control.”
“The agency documents never describe or mention that these duties have any relation to TSA’s core mission of transportation security. Instead, the duties relate to assisting migrants who have crossed the border into the United States,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for the TSA stated Marshals deployed to the border earlier than, in 2019, and that the rotations are non permanent.
“The deployment of Federal Air Marshals to execute DHS’ mission at the southwest border on a reimbursable basis is temporary. At the same time, our expert Federal Air Marshal Service workforce continues their important work in transportation security,” they stated.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”