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Illegal Aliens Not Required to Possess ID Card to Pass TSA Security

Illegal aliens are also being allowed by TSA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to decline to having their photos taken at airport security.

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UPDATE: This article has been updated to include comments from TSA.

While American citizens are asked to show an official ID card and proper photo for air travel, illegal aliens can refuse to provide either. 

In a photo snapped by Fox News’ Dave Rubin, TSA publicized a print announcement of its partnership with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to test the use of a mobile app called CBP One at certain checkpoints to “validate adult non-U.S. citizen travel documentation where the traveler does not otherwise have an acceptable form of identification.” 

Essentially, illegal aliens are not required to present an official government-issued identification card for air travel. 

According to the announcement, all an illegal alien is required to do is simply notify the TSA officer that he or she is a “migrant,” opt in or out of having their photo taken, present an alien identification number or biographical origin, and follow the officer’s further instructions—which are left unspecified. 

Underlined in the announcement is the fact that illegal aliens may decline to have their photo taken if they do not wish to be photographed. 

Additionally, neither the CBP One app nor TSA will store the illegal alien’s information that is provided (i.e. alien identification number or biographical information). 

Retired ICE Field Office Director John Fabbricatore said that this is “ridiculous.” 

“First off, they are giving them an option not to have their photo taken. Let’s be clear on why this is,” he posted on X on January 18. “It’s to prevent new photos that ICE might use if deportation is required. Second, they are also not storing any info regarding the illegal aliens because that, too, could be used by ICE for any future investigations.”

Fabbricatore continued, “Also, these are illegal aliens, not ‘migrants’ or immigrants. An immigrant or lawful non-immigrant (Visa) would have an actual ID, Passport, or green card.

“Our Government makes us take our shoes off, get X-rayed, and examined while illegal aliens are escorted all over the country with little to no ID or oversight to fill up blue districts for the next census,” his post concluded. 

Back in June, Senior Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies Todd Bensman wrote a detailed analysis on how the Biden administration is using CBP One to funnel would-be illegal aliens through ports of entry, and thus not be officially counted as “illegal.” 

Bensman wrote that the current administration is actively working to keep CBP One entries a secret—evidenced by the fact that they ignored his February 2023 Freedom of Information Act request asking for granular breakdowns of CBP One entries. 

This is one of the latest developments of the Biden administration’s use of air travel to funnel illegal aliens to various parts of the United States. 

Earlier this month Texas Scorecard reported on O’Keefe Media Group Founder and CEO James O’Keefe’s exposé of a secret facility run by the taxpayer-funded International Rescue Committee in Arizona that transported illegal aliens to the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport every hour. 

Similarly, accusations of NGOs facilitating the travel of illegal aliens further into the country on order from the federal government have been made in Texas. Concerns have even been raised that these NGOs might be facilitating human trafficking in some cases. 

“The Department of Homeland Security works to detect and prevent individuals who pose national security or public safety risks from entering the secure areas of an airport to depart on a domestic flight or entering the United States upon arrival from another country. Recent reports that noncitizens have lower security bars for traveling on domestic flights are false,” TSA told Texas Scorecard. “Noncitizens without acceptable forms of ID must undergo additional, more robust screenings to fly within the United States. The use of CBP One to verify noncitizens’ identities allows TSA to verify that individuals are who they claim to be and that they have been vetted and processed by DHS into an appropriate immigration pathway. These individuals are most commonly awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge and have a legal basis to remain in the United States for that hearing. Collaboration between CBP and TSA on this enhanced security program began in 2021.”
Will Biagini

Will was born in Louisiana and raised in a military family. He currently serves as a journalist with Texas Scorecard. Previously, he was a senior correspondent for Campus Reform.

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