The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has abruptly ended a special program that allowed illegal aliens, such as immigrants and asylum seekers, who had been allowed to stay in the United States but lacked ID documents, to pass through airport security checkpoints.
Introduced during the first Trump administration, the TSA utilized a special app developed by Customs and Border Protection, known as CBP One, to verify the identity of non-citizens who didn’t have traditional forms of ID required at the checkpoint like a passport or state-issued driving license.
The app was originally designed to speed up the processing of migrants at the southwest land border and allowed non-citizens to generate Notice to Appear (NTA) and I-94 forms to act as their primary form of ID in the United States.
Under a controversial program, the TSA utilized a government version of the app to cross reference these documents at a small number of select airports against secure flight databases and verify the identity of the person at the checkpoint.
The use of the CBP One app for this purpose has, however, faced significant opposition, and several lawmakers introduced their own legislation in an attempt to stop undocumented migrants from flying without official ID documents.
Last March, for example, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D, introduced his End Aerial Invasion Act that would have banned any airline operating out of Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) from providing transportation to any non-citizen using CBP One to verify their identity.
According to Senator Marshall, more than half a million migrants were registered on CBP One in 2023 alone.
Referring to President Biden, the Senator said at the time: “Allowing illegal migrants to enter our country and then board airlines free of charge without proper I.D. or vetting is unbelievable. I don’t know how this president, who threatens and undermines our national security at every turn, sleeps at night.”
Around the same time, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the VALID Act, which would have banned the TSA from using the CBP One app to verify the identity of migrants at security checkpoints.
Both pieces of proposed legislation were introduced to Congress, although neither has become law.
On Monday, however, the TSA confirmed that it was ending its use of CBP One in a short statement posted to X, saying that it would now only accept undocumented migrants at airport checkpoints for the purpose of them being deported.
“TSA has discontinued the use of the CBP One app. Illegal aliens who previously had their identity established using CBP One will only be permitted into the checkpoint if TSA can determine the purpose of travel is for deportation or movement between detention facilities,” the statement read.
“If TSA cannot verify the identity of an illegal alien at a checkpoint without ID, the individual will not be permitted to enter the sterile area or board an aircraft.”
Immigrants were never a part of this.