The Biden border crisis takes to the skies

Cory Alvarez landed in the United States in 2023. He flew from his home in Haiti and ultimately settled in Boston. Just a few months after arriving in America, Alvarez was arrested and charged by local police with the rape of a 15-year-old disabled girl.  

Alvarez should have never been allowed into our country. 

He didn’t need an ID, a visa or a valid travel authorization to enter the United States legally. He only needed a phone — a phone he used to download the CBP One Mobile Application. The app, designed initially to expedite cargo processing at the southern border, is now being used by the Biden administration to facilitate the entry of hundreds of thousands of inadmissible immigrants.  

Since President Biden took office, over half a million illegal immigrants have entered the United States via the CBP One Mobile App. Not content with just opening our southern border, this administration has invited people across the globe to schedule their unauthorized entry via the CBP One app and use that app as identification to board a flight into the United States. Under the direction of the Biden administration, migrants can use this app as a form of permissible ID to board a plane flying into and within the United States. They are free to upload whatever information they’d like, making it impossible to verify their identity.  

Without verifying their identity, we’re entirely blind to their criminal history.  

This is a massive departure from the nearly universal post-9/11 position that, at a bare minimum, we should know the identity of a person before they board a plane entering the United States. By embracing ID-less travel through the CBP One Mobile App, the Biden administration has shattered this long-held consensus. As a result, we have individuals like Kenol Baptiste, a Haitian man arrested and accused of double homicide, entering the country. 

As Americans, we now face a reality where people with no legitimate ID, whose backgrounds we can’t verify, and whose criminal history remains unknown, are being allowed to board planes in foreign countries and land in towns and cities across the U.S.   

This is a full-blown public safety crisis.  

The safety of American air travelers and our communities cannot be assured as long as this program remains in place. Congress must step in and hold the Biden administration accountable for importing crime into our backyards. 

This week is our opportunity to do just that. Congress is preparing to vote on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act, must-pass legislation that extends the FAA's authority for another five years. I have filed a commonsense, straightforward amendment that would withhold funds from the FAA if the federal government continues to allow the CBP One Mobile App and related documents to be used for the purposes of boarding a plane. My amendment would bring this dangerous process to an immediate and permanent end.  

What is controversial about expecting someone to have a legal form of ID before boarding a plane bound for the United States? Did you have to show your ID the last time you arrived at the airport? Of course you did. There is something fundamentally wrong when American citizens must present an ID, stand in long security lines, and often subject themselves to additional screening — only to allow illegal migrants to pass through security without so much as a driver’s license.  

Americans deserve to know that the plane they’re boarding is safe and that the people coming into our country are who they say they are. That’s not too much to ask. To restore public safety, commonsense and sanity, Congress must amend the FAA Reauthorization Act to stop inadmissible migrants from flying into our country with no ID once and for all.  

Mike Lee is the senior senator from Utah.