President Joe Biden and his administration's open border policies have led to all sorts of negative consequences, including those we might not necessarily be thinking of, such as law enforcement officials being diverted to help out at the border. Federal air marshals are among them, despite how there's been a rise in flyer rage incidents. Earlier this week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced the NO FAMS at the Border Act, which would put marshals back on planes. In order to divert those marshals, the bill lays out exceptions of acknowledging that a border crisis actually exists, and certifying that to Congressional committees. Despite the consequences experienced every day over the border crisis, the Biden administration refuses to acknowledge such an emergency.
A press release from the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where Cruz serves as the ranking member, highlights how bad deployments have come in just the few years that Biden has been in office. While "a few" air marshals were assigned to the southern border to help with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the press release points out that "over 80% of deployments have taken place since President Biden took office" and that such a "trend indicates the Biden administration’s systematic withdrawal of Federal Air Marshals from their mandated role of safeguarding the flying public."
Further, air marshals weren't exactly on board with such a move from the Biden administration, as they even planned a "mutiny" over such deployments in late 2022.
Cruz's statement upon introducing the bill was even more brutal.
"Americans have recently witnessed numerous high-profile security incidents in the sky, highlighting that TSA’s decision to take air marshals off flights and deploy them to the border may be putting the traveling public at risk. In a brazen act of hypocrisy, the Biden administration maintains that the border is secure, while it continues to reassign air marshals from protecting the skies to the southern border. My legislation provides a simple answer to this looming problem—if Secretary Mayorkas wants to redirect these public servants to the border to help clean up their self-inflicted disaster—he must certify the existence of a border crisis to Congress," he said, also highlighting how "simple" it can be to get those marshals to assist at the border.
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The senator last October also sent a letter to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator David Pekoske to immediately stop the agency's deployment of federal air marshals to the border.
The Biden administration has been dragging their feet on all matters to do with the crisis at the southern border, as their main selling point has been to blame Republicans. This also involves laughably claiming the president's recent border trip is "not about politics," as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre just recently did on Thursday when not only asked by CNN about that trip, but also the murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley, who was allegedly killed by Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela with a criminal history.
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