In response to a congressman's request for information based upon a whistleblower's tip, the TSA admitted that illegal aliens are allowed to fly even if the only identification they have is an arrest warrant or warrant of removal from DHS related to their illegal status.  So, while you're flashing the REAL ID driver's license that was a total pain to obtain, the illegal alien in front of you just shows his arrest warrant.  That'll teach those illegal aliens not to break into our country.

Think about travel now, compared to travel before COVID and 9/11.  In the old days, you'd walk up to the airplane, often with friends and family at your side to see you off; show your ticket; and board the plane.  Even without paying an extra fee, you might have legroom.  Only Saudi Arabian women wore face coverings, and everyone felt appropriately sorry for these sad women hidden from view.

Nowadays, you must have a formal government-approved form of identification, whether it's a passport or a driver's license.  But it can't be just any driver's license.  Instead, it must be a REAL ID.

For many of us, that meant the pain in the neck of dealing with our state DMV despite just recently renewing our old driver's license.  When I did that a few years ago in California, the clerk snatched my old license from me and then told me I needed to pass a written test as part of getting the REAL ID if I wanted to drive home.  I wasn't expecting that.  (I passed.)

Once at the airport, the TSA agent scrutinizes your license or passport as well as being placed on a scanner of some sort.  That's in addition to stripping off all your outerwear, practically unpacking your bags, and getting x-rayed because we can always use a little more radiation.  Once on the plane, of course, we're packed like sardines and forced to wear stifling masks in some of the most purified air on the planet.  The indignities never seem to end.

Image: Airport security by Wavebreakmedia_micro.  Freepik license.

But a whistleblower introduced a new wrinkle to all of this. It turns out that, if you're an illegal alien lacking both passport and license (never mind that REAL ID), you can still fly in America.

When Rep. Lance Goodwin (R-Texas) wrote a letter to the TSA asking about the fact that illegal aliens without official identification are boarding American planes, the TSA 'fessed up:

Responding to Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden's Dec. 15 inquiry about illegal migrants flying across the country, TSA Administrator David Pekoske explained that certain Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents may be considered acceptable forms of alternate identification for non-citizens, including a "Warrant for Arrest of Alien" and a "Warrant of Removal/Deportation."

"TSA's response confirms the Biden Administration is knowingly putting our national security at risk," Gooden told the DCNF. "Unknown and unvetted immigrants shouldn't even be in the country, much less flying without proper identification."

The same letter also says that the "alien identification number" on these DHS documents gets run through some databases to ensure that the person isn't a terrorist or on another watch list.  In addition, he says the people get extra screening.

That procedure, naturally, assumes that the DHS documents are accurate.  However, Gooden reported to the Daily Caller, which broke the story, "that he was told by a border patrol officer that 'they often have to take migrants at their word that they are who they say they are' when issuing DHS documents accepted by TSA as alternate forms of identification."

In just the first ten months of 2021, these DHS documents were used at airport security by 45,577 people — or around 124 people per day.

I hope all of this makes you feel safer flying America's unfriendly skies.

But it's not just the security aspects of this that are so maddening.  Someone who is in the country illegally shouldn't have the privilege of hopping onto an airplane.  Even as Joe Biden has made masks mandatory and is contemplating forcing vaccines on air travelers, illegal aliens have been flying around America as if they own it.

Once again, leftists are punishing American citizens and legal residents, while at the same time making it clear that people who are illegally in this country get special treatment.

I don't believe that America has ever before suffered a governing class that despises the people it governs.  You'd better participate in primaries this spring to make sure the best people are running and then, in November, vote as if your life depends on it, because this year, it does.