U.S. air marshals are charged with keeping airlines safe from a variety of situations but due to the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration wants to send them to the region to help out the overwhelmed Border Patrol.
The Washington Examiner reported the air marshals are risking to be fired for refusing the orders but they are willing to take that risk as the Biden administration's plan would leave just 1-in-100 U.S. flights with federal agents on board, one-eighth of its normal coverage. The lessened coverage would come at one of the busiest traveling times of the year. To add insult to injury, the air marshals who have already been sent to the border have been basically put on baby-sitting duty for the migrants in Border Patrol custody.
"The rank and file air marshals are going to refuse to deploy and risk termination," David Londo, president of the Air Marshal National Council, told the Examiner. "You’re almost going to have a mutiny of a federal agency, which is unheard of."
The orders to go to the southern border is a significant change from 2021, where the Federal Air Marshal Service asked for volunteers for 30-day rotations. The length of the mission was shortened to 21 days after pushback from the air marshals.
Sonya Labosco, a former air marshal, told Fox News host Tucker Carlson the Biden administration does "not want to declare a national emergency on the border, so they think they’re secretly going to sneak air marshals off the planes, and we’re not going to be quiet about it."
"We’re highly skilled, operating 35,000 feet at a moment’s notice, may have to utilize deadly force. These jobs are easily backfilled with NGOs or contractors. I have no idea why they’re trying to pull the air marshals out of our skies. And we’re at the busiest time of the season for travel," she added.
The ill-conceived comes prior to Title 42 no longer being enforced, which is expected to cause an even greater influx of illegal crossings on top of a fiscal year that has started as one of the busiest in American history.