Recently ousted Republican Congressman from New York, George Santos, took to Twitter calling out the TSA and Delta Air Lines CEO, Ed Bastian, over migrant flights. If you are considering booking travel or signing up for a new credit card please...
Recently ousted Republican Congressman from New York, George Santos, took to Twitter calling out the TSA and Delta Air Lines CEO, Ed Bastian, over migrant flights.
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Fmr. Congressman Santos Weighs In On Migrant Flights
The famed former Republican Congressman George Santos took to Twitter with harsh words for Delta Air Lines CEO, Ed Bastian over a viral video this week. The video showed alleged undocumented migrants were flown domestically in the United States en route to New York. Here’s what he had to say:
Shout out to @stclairashley who pulled the curtain back on all of this!
It’s time we turn o. The heat and try to save whatever we can of our very exposed national security.
This must end NOW! pic.twitter.com/IVs0NsTDyK
— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) December 22, 2023
Santos was responding to this video which Matthew discussed earlier in the week:
My @Delta flight from Phoenix appears to be flying migrants who crossed the border and are being shipped to New York
When I asked a Delta representative if this was the case, his response was “What does it matter, they’re humans too”
What is happening???? pic.twitter.com/zew340d6u2
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) December 19, 2023
Santos’ History
In 2022, Santos was elected to Congress from a Long Island congressional district flipping the seat from Democrats to Republicans. He was the first openly gay, non-incumbent Republican elected to a federal post. Santos allegedly made materially false statements including that his mother was in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11 among other proven lies and mistruths. Then House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, asked the house to “move rapidly” regarding allegations that resulted in a House Ethics Committee report. It was found that he misused 2022 congressional campaign funds for personal use. A Nassau County District Attorney (District of New York) along with the FBI brought 13 formal charges over the allegations just before summer.
He was voted out of Congress which has happened to only five congressmen before, though two of those were related to support of the confederacy.
Security Is An Issue
Santos’ history aside, the man has a point. While there are several legal issues at play, transporting undocumented migrants domestically is an issue for the TSA. Americans can fly without producing an approved photo ID, it happens all the time when travelers lose their wallets or in cases of theft whereby they must still return home. But typically travelers without identification will have some other means of proving they are the named passenger on the ticket. If the passengers truly were undocumented, it would be impossible to know who they were, and passing through the various traveler checkpoints would have been a problem. Frequent commenter, “Maryland” suggested that migrants seeking work in the US may be issued a USCIS card providing the needed documentation.
Santos calls out Bastian specifically, first complimenting him on how he has run Delta and managed the airline through the tumultuous COVID years, but then demands to know who paid for the flights. The video Santos was responding to claimed that it was American taxpayers footing the bill. That is, of course, completely unfounded though not illogical. Neither the original poster nor Santos knows for certain that these were migrants in the first place, nor that US government funds were used to pay for the flights. It could be funded by a charity, NGO, or any other source.
What About Other Migrant Flights?
It’s been no secret that Texas Governor Abbott and Florida Governor Desantis have transported migrants to sanctuary cities and states via bus or plane. These are municipalities that have weighed in on the migrant border crisis but are generally not in the vicinity of the southern border.
One would have to imagine that airplanes full of migrants, funded by the taxpayers of those two states, would have to follow the same rules for flight security and may have skirted the same rules alleged in the videos. However, at least some of the flights were flown privately, and private terminals (FBOs) do not use TSA checkpoints.
New York has been buckling under the pressure of more than 100,000 migrants on its doorstep, though around twice as many cross the southern border each month into far smaller communities like El Paso, Texas.
“As the city struggles to respond, Mr. Adams has also begun to discourage migrants from seeking refuge in New York City. In early October, he traveled to Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia to meet with migrants and spread the message that New York City “has reached capacity.” – New York Times
Yet despite New York Mayor, Eric Adams, and New York Governor, Kathy Hochul’s calls for the practice to end and declaring a state of emergency, none seemed to have raised the point that transporting unknown persons across state lines may violate security protocols that American citizens and foreign visitors are subject to. Several legal challenges stemmed from Desantis’ Martha’s Vineyard fiasco, including using state funds to transport persons from another state (Texas), but none have raised the same concern that Santos did.
Conclusion
The unverified claims that Santos and others have raised on social media may have merit if true. While Bastian and Delta Air Lines have declined to comment about the purchaser of those tickets and whether those passengers were in fact migrants without identification, they may be compelled by Congress to disclose it. If it was a US government body using taxpayer funds, that would be public record. However, angry as Santos might be, there’s no evidence that the pictured passengers were, in fact, undocumented at all nor that there were security concerns nor public funds used. Mr. Santos might be best suited sticking to the facts, though that’s not exactly his forte.
What do you think? Are undocumented travelers a safety concern in the US? If so, who’s accountable for this? If not, why do other travelers have to produce identification?