US House Republicans Challenge DHS on Allowing Illegal Immigrants Flight ID Documents

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Two dozen Republicans in the US House of Representatives sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting information on the Biden administration's policy to allow illegal immigrants to use non-standard forms of identification to board airplanes in the United States, Fox News reported.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) policy allows illegal immigrants to use civil immigration arrest warrants, deportation orders, orders of release on recognizances, orders of supervision and other documents if they do not possess standard forms of identification on the TSA’s approved list.

The lawmakers called the Biden administration policy "extremely troubling" given that such documents could be easily forged, copied or otherwise manipulated. The lawmakers also said that taxpayer money should not be used to transport illegal immigrants but rather to build additional detention space.

The TSA had previously said that non-standard documents only mark the start of an identification verification process with additional vetting. Such documents would be validated by using an alien identification number linked to the personal information in the Customs and Border Protection databases.

The letter asked the Mayorkas to provide the number of illegal immigrants who have been allowed to board flights without acceptable forms of identification, a breakdown of the type of identification documents used and more information about the vetting measures, among other data.