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LaBosco also criticized the border duties assigned to air marshals as “absolutely ridiculous.” She highlighted that these highly trained professionals were relegated to tasks such as “handing out water, making sandwiches, Uber Eats runs … bringing diapers and stuff into the facilities and unloading trucks.”
She warned of the dire consequences of this policy, especially with the backdrop of millions of illegal immigrants within the country. “The long-haul flights are super important for us to be on because those are the same flights the 9/11 hijackers actually targeted and took that day on 9/11,” LaBosco asserted.
A report from the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security supported LaBosco’s concerns. The report criticized the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for failing to perform a risk assessment regarding the operational impacts of deploying air marshals to the border.
“Without establishing performance measures and assessing risks related to deploying air marshals, TSA cannot ensure deployments did not impact FAMs’ mission to mitigate potential risks and threats to our nation’s transportation system,” the report stated. FAMs refer to the Federal Air Marshals Service.
Contrary to the official stance of the Federal Air Marshals Service, which claimed that flight safety was not compromised, a survey of the marshals themselves revealed a different perspective. The marshals expressed that their absence indeed heightened the risks on flights.
Carry 46 rounds concealed? (comfortably)
The financial cost of this policy was also significant. The report noted that the TSA incurred approximately $45 million in travel and payroll costs from May 2019 to August 2023 due to the deployment of air marshals to the Southwest border.
“TSA could not assess the operational impacts to its primary mission of safeguarding the Nation’s transportation system while TSA deployed air marshals to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Southwest border. This occurred because TSA did not establish baseline quantifiable and measurable goals from which it could measure the effectiveness of its primary, day-to-day operations,” the report concluded.
The redeployment of air marshals to the border remains a contentious issue, with many arguing that it compromises the core mission of air safety to address border security challenges. The debate continues as stakeholders weigh the necessity of border assistance against the critical need for security in the skies.
