by Jennie Taer
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to end certain immigration policies he believes have left the country less safe, suggesting the department should also consider a name change.
Schmitt urged Mayorkas to address the use of certain arrest warrants as identification for migrants going through airport security, according to a letter sent Tuesday and exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“As we approach the one year anniversary of your confirmation as director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), it is beyond dispute that this administration has doggedly pursued a course of action that makes our country less safe and less secure,” Schmitt wrote.
“The most recent example of DHS’s willful disregard for the safety of the American people and the integrity of the law itself comes in the form of a letter from your subordinates in the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) publicly admitting that illegal aliens are allowed free passage through their checkpoints using actual arrest warrants as identification documents,” Schmitt said.
The DCNF exclusively obtained a letter TSA Administrator David Pekoske sent in January to Texas Republican Rep. Lance Gooden outlining the process for non-citizens to travel at U.S. airports. Pekoske listed seven DHS documents that TSA considers alternate forms of identification for migrants, including an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “Warrant for Arrest of Alien” and “Warrant of Removal/Deportation.”
The administrative warrants are signed by ICE officials, who believe there is a reason a person should be removed from the country.
“The idea that a federal law enforcement agency would look the other way as individuals openly admit – indeed provide documentation of the fact – that they are fugitives from American justice stretches and strains credulity,” Schmitt wrote. “So egregious is this open and willful disregard for the rule of law and for the welfare of American citizens that I would not have believed it had not the TSA verified that it was true.”
Schmitt said that the TSA’s statement is yet another issue he has with DHS immigration policies, adding that the department should consider a name change that reflects its “secrecy.”
“Here in Missouri, true to our nickname as the ‘Show-Me State’, we value honesty, straight talk and truth in advertising – especially from those in positions of authority,” Schmitt wrote. “With this in mind, and in light of the frequent and egregious missteps by the Department of Homeland Security, I have a suggestion to make – either immediately change your ways or change your name.
“If you insist on ignoring the rule of law, turning a blind eye as hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens flood our borders and openly pass through TSA screening as they are surreptitiously resettled in American communities, often under the cover of darkness, perhaps a more fitting name for your agency would be the ‘Department of Homeland Secrecy,’” he said.
Schmitt has sought legal action against some of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Notably, a federal judge ruled in August in favor of the attorney general’s lawsuit, alongside Texas, to have former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” border policy reinstated. The decision was later upheld by the Supreme Court.
“Over the last year, it has become apparent that your reluctance to arrest illegal immigrants is not due to a lack of legal authority,” Schmitt wrote. “Rather, a series of DHS policy decisions demonstrates that the true vision of the Biden Administration is that open borders should be encouraged and that any law to the contrary should be ignored. While that may be the vision of liberal elites in Washington, it is not a vision that is shared by the American people.”
“Such actions, taken under the cover of darkness, without the knowledge or consent of citizens or state governments represent a significant breach of trust,” he concluded. “Therefore, as the elected chief law enforcement officer of the State of Missouri, I demand that you immediately reverse these secret and ill-advised immigration policies.”
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Jennie Taer is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Eric Schmitt” by Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
