By VALERIE GONZALEZ (Associated Press)
The US government has begun mandating that migrants who don't have passports use facial recognition technology to take domestic flights. This change has caused confusion among immigrants and advocacy groups in Texas.
The exact date of the change is unclear, but several migrants trying to board flights from South Texas on Tuesday believed they were being turned away. Some migrants had used the government’s online appointment system to pursue their immigration cases. Advocates were worried about migrants who had crossed the US-Mexico border illegally and were then released to pursue their immigration cases.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) informed The Associated Press on Thursday that migrants without proper photo identification who want to board flights must undergo facial recognition to confirm their identity using Department of Homeland Security records.
The agency said, “If TSA cannot match their identity to DHS records, they will also be denied entry into the secure areas of the airport and will be denied boarding.”
Agency officials did not state when TSA implemented the change, only that it was recent and not in response to a specific security threat.
It’s unclear how many migrants might be affected. Some have foreign passports.
Migrants and communities on the US-Mexico border have increasingly relied on airlines to transport them to other cities where they have friends and family, as ordered by Border Patrol to proceed with their immigration claims.
Organizations assisting migrants were taken by surprise by the change. Migrants were worried they might lose the money spent on nonrefundable tickets. After a group of migrants reported being turned away at the airport and returning to a shelter in McAllen on Tuesday, advocates exchanged messages to learn about the new TSA procedures.
The Rev. Brian Strassburger, the executive director of Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries, a Texas-based group providing aid and advocacy for migrants, said, “It caused a tremendous amount of distress for people.”
Strassburger stated that migrants used to be able to board flights with documents from Border Patrol.
One Ecuadorian woman traveling with her child told the AP she was able to board easily on Wednesday after allowing officers to take a photo of her at the TSA checkpoint.
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