The Biden administration’s most recent border security plan calls for leaving nearly 99 percent of commercial aircraft unguarded to support overworked U.S. Border Patrol personnel. However, dozens of U.S. Air Marshals are willing to go against that plan. Defying the Biden administration’s demands is on the verge of becoming a “mutiny,” according to a professional air marshal.
According to The Washington Examiner, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requested volunteers from its Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) office in mid-2021 to forgo their regular responsibilities of securing planes in favor of supporting the U.S. Border Patrol. According to Reuters, fewer than 150 air marshals signed up for a border rotation in October, and the DHS switched from asking for volunteers to assigning them to the border.
The decision to send air marshals to the southern border comes as the Biden administration has experienced a record-breaking increase in unauthorized border crossings in the United States.
Numerous rank-and-file members have said they will reject the assignments as air marshals are currently deployed to the border. The Air Marshal National Council, a group of air marshals, recently warned DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FAMS Director Tirrell Stevenson in a letter that air marshals will defy orders to go to the border.
“The rank and file air marshals are going to refuse to deploy and risk termination,” David Londo, a 16-year DHS employee and president of the Air Marshal National Council, told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “You’re almost going to have a mutiny of a federal agency, which is unheard of.”
The Washington Examiner received a letter from the Air Marshal National Council that mentioned two separate security incidents that happened on commercial airline flights just in November.
According to the Washington Post, a man got two box cutters past airport security in the first incident on November 11 and was found in possession of the sharp objects an hour into the trip. The plane made an emergency landing, and the suspect passenger was safely taken into custody.
In the second incident, which happened on November 21, a man brought a straight razor blade onto a plane and held it to another passenger’s throat while in the air. A traveler recorded a video.
FAMS members can fill about 8% of commercial airline trips. FAMS would have to reduce its presence on commercial flights within the United States to just one out of every 100 flights under the Biden administration’s proposal to send air marshals to the border, leaving the other 99 percent unsecured.
The Air Marshal National Council stated in the letter to Mayorkas and Stevenson that highly trained air marshals will work primarily on non-law enforcement civilian humanitarian activities at the border. Air marshals who have been called to the wall have been entrusted with “cooking up meals,” transporting detained immigrants to the hospital, and waiting on hospital watch, according to Londo, who spoke to the Washington Examiner.
According to Londo, who spoke to the Washington Examiner, air marshals are prepared to take a chance on losing their jobs to protest what they see as an administration risk to national security.
