The following commentary is published on Thursdays as part of TPPF’s subscriber-only newsletter The Post. If you would like to subscribe to The Post, click here.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General released an explosive report revealing that CBP, ICE, and TSA are allowing immigrants entry into the U.S. and to board domestic flights without verifying their identity and vetting them for potential threats.
“Under current processes, CBP and ICE cannot ensure they are keeping high-risk noncitizens without identification from entering the country,” the report states. “Additionally, TSA cannot ensure its vetting and screening procedures prevent high-risk noncitizens who may pose a threat to the flying public from boarding domestic flights.”
The report concludes, “If CBP and ICE continue to allow noncitizens — whose identities immigration officers cannot confirm — to enter the country, they may inadvertently increase national security risks.”
This isn’t the first time the IG has sounded the alarm on vetting. In June, the office issued a similar report on the asylum process saying the agencies “were not fully effective to screen and vet noncitizens applying for admission into the United States or asylum seekers whose asylum applications were pending for an extended period.”
“We’re not vetting,” says Selene Rodriguez, director for TPPF’s Secure and Sovereign Texas campaign. “It’s the biggest security threat of the whole border crisis. It’s one thing if they are sneaking across undetected and we never detain them. But these individuals are requesting access to enter the United States and there is apparently no effective system in place to ensure they are not security threats before we let them in and board flights.”
The report comes on the heels of a major arrest in Massachusetts of several illegal aliens accused of sexual assault against children. Undoubtedly, these tragedies will increase as long as we refuse to close our border and enforce the vetting requirements.