A federal air marshal “mutiny” is reportedly being planned after it was revealed that Joe Biden is planning to strip 99% of commercial flights of federal air marshals and relocate them to posts along the Southern Border.
According to the Washington Examiner, “dozens of federal air marshals have agreed to refuse a Biden administration order that they leave their assignments and go to the southern border…”
If the Biden Administration carries out this reassignment of agents, it would reduce air marshal presence aboard commercial flights to 1/8 of its normal level.
Though refusing the order puts air marshals at risk of termination, dozens of them argue that abandoning their current assignments will leave American fliers more vulnerable to threats over the busy holiday travel season.
Fox News reports:
U.S. air marshals are reportedly staging a “mutiny” on the Biden administration over its immigration policies, as they plan to refuse mandatory deployment orders to the southern border and, therefore, face possible termination.
Though refusing the order puts them at risk of termination, dozens of air marshals argue that abandoning their current assignments will leave American fliers more vulnerable to threats over the busy holiday travel season.
Amid an influx of illegal immigrants held in custody, the Federal Air Marshal Service asked for volunteers to deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border for 30 days in mid-2021. But earlier this month, the Biden administration announced air marshals, considered federal law enforcement agents within the Transportation Security Administration, would face mandatory deployments as the shortage of Border Patrol agents worsens.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, David Londo, president of the Air Marshal National Council, said, “Rank and file air marshals are going to refuse to deploy and risk termination,” as the Biden administration plan would strip 99% of commercial airline flights from federal protection.
“You’re almost going to have a mutiny of a federal agency, which is unheard of,” he said.
The mandatory deployments would leave just one-in-100 U.S. flights with federal agents on board, culminating one-eighth of its normal coverage, according to the Examiner.
Londo said “highly-skilled” air marshals deployed to the border this week “are being made to perform mainly non-law enforcement civilian humanitarian duties.” He told the Examiner that includes “heating up sandwiches,” driving illegal immigrants in custody to the hospital and waiting inside for hours on hospital watch, and effectively babysitting adults who are already in confined spaces.
“Morale is so destroyed from this,” Londo said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
In a statement to the Examiner, the Transportation Security Administration denied air marshals deployed to the border performed such menial tasks, describing Londo’s claims as “entirely inaccurate and does not reflect the critical and professional law enforcement role these officers perform.”
In a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Transportation Security Administration Administrator David Pekoske, and Federal Air Marshal Service Director Tirrell Stevenson, Londo cited two major security incidents on aircraft within the past two weeks in which media indicated there were no air marshals on board.
The first incident, as reported by The Washington Post, involved a man who boarded Frontier flight 1761 with two box cutters on Nov. 11 and threatened to stab passengers and crew before being subdued by passengers. The flight was diverted, and the person was taken into custody.
The second incident involved a man who was allowed to board JetBlue flight 871 with a small-edged weapon, which the suspect allegedly placed to the throat of another passenger. He was arrested and faces several federal offenses.
