Border crisis could now put FLIGHTS in danger: Air Marshals are being deployed to the border

The head of a union for air marshals warned of 'another 9/11' if President Joe Biden doesn't stop diverting these airborne law enforcement to help with the southern border crisis.

Sonia Labosco, executive director of the Air Marshal National Council, called on the Biden administration to stop sending air marshals to help with the migration crisis.

She told Fox & Friends First on Monday morning that air marshals have been unable to conduct their usual role of patrolling commercial flights due to being diverted to the U.S.-Mexico border – saying that they are now on only 1 percent of flights.

'We have been decimated,' Labosco said. 'We have been depleted. We're on less than 1 percent of flights.'

'These ground-based duties that they're pulling us out of the sky to go to the border are just demolishing our chances at stopping another 9/11,' she warned.

Labosco told Fox that air marshals are 'torn' over their duties, claiming they want to help at the border, but feel that they are not doing the job they were trained to do. 

Executive director of the Air Marshal National Council Sonia Labosco demanded that the Biden administration stop pulling air marshals from the sky and sending them to the southern border. Labosco said that air marshals are now on only 1 percent of flights ahead of one of the busiest travel times of year – the holidays

These air marshals are largely perform humanitarian duties outside the scope of their training when sent to the southern border

The Federal Air Marshal Service falls under the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is also the agency in charge of securing the border and handling the migration crisis.

Republicans have called for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' impeachment, claiming he and Biden have mismanaged southern border immigration into a full blown crisis.

While 3,000 air marshals are highly specialized and trained to monitor high-risk flights from on board, most have been taken out of the skies by Mayorkas and deployed to the southern border.

Rather than keep the skies safe around the busiest travel time of year – the holidays – these deployed federal air marshals are doing mainly humanitarian work rather than counterterrorism and transportation security duties they are trained to perform.

'They have a humanitarian heart,' Labosco told Fox on Monday. 'We empathize with what's happening at the border as human beings. However, it does not take away the responsibility or the oath that we have as air marshals to protect our aviation domain.'

She said that the Biden administration has not gotten back to her after she expressed concerns over the weekend regarding flight safety risks now that air marshals are no longer on board 99 percent of flights.

'We actually wrote him another letter over the weekend because we had a level four and a level three incident. Level four means that they tried to breach the cockpit. Level three, we had two of those, which means there were life-threatening behaviors on one of those aircraft. An individual had a straight razor to a passenger's throat. So these are very serious incidents,' she said.

The diversion of air marshals to the border comes as the Biden administration plans to end pandemic-era migrant policy Title 42 next month – just days before Christmas.

The first month of Fiscal Year 2023 showed more than 230,000 encounters with CBP, the third-highest month in recent history, all occurring under President Joe Biden

The impending end of the policy is leading to U.S. Border Patrol workers' preparation for a massive wave of migration just before Christmas, according to six agents who spoke with the Washington Examiner.

Thousands of agents with Border Patrol are bracing for a collapse of the migration system once Title 42 ends, which was a policy put forth at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic under President Donald Trump that allows immediate expulsion of asylum seekers during a public health emergency.

The policy is set to end December 21 – after President Joe Biden's administration previously attempted to nix the program in May.

For years now during the pandemic, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been able to expel migrants crossing the southern border back to Mexico without first processing them through the U.S. immigration system.

The end of the policy comes as figures show illegal immigration encounters at the southern border reached one of the highest figures ever in October, coming in third to April and May earlier this year.

U.S. Border Patrol agents and employees are preparing for total chaos at the southern border when Title 42 ends on December 21 – just days before Christmas. Pictured: Migrants are detained in Eagle Pass, Texas on November 8

The start of Fiscal Year 2023 came with CBP reporting encounters with 230,678 migrants at the southern border.

Border Patrol employees are warning that the crisis will only get worse once Biden ends Title 42 next month.

'When Title 42 ends we are going to see an already broken immigration system become completely inundated across all sectors,' one agent told the Examiner, asking not to be identified by name, location or job title.

'There will be no choice but to prioritize administrative/detainee functions over actual enforcement,' they added, explaining that officials will need to put immigrants on parole and release as many as possible in order to 'avoid another large scale media event.' 

A senior agent in West Texas said: 'Title 42 was a cracked dam. We all know that when it breaks, a huge flood is coming. The flood of people coming in at once will cripple our already broken immigration system.'

'Customs and Border Protection will have no other choice but to release virtually everyone,' they added.

Agents say that without the ability to expel migrants back to Mexico, the system will become even more overwhelmed and inundated

All six Border Patrol agents who spoke with the Examiner shared the same expectation that the agency will no longer be able to fully handle the extent of the southern border crisis once Title 42 is no longer a usable tool.

A third agent said 'everyone is anticipating that the flow will be nuts.'

The senior official at Border Patrol's Washington headquarters wrote: 'The people waiting in Mexico already will be anxious to come in ASAP.'

Even with Title 42 in place, migration has surged to record-high levels under Biden as his administration dismantled a lot of what was put in place to quell southern border crossings under the previous presidency.

On average, CBP apprehends 6,000 migrants every day since Biden took office. Such a high scale of crossings have already overwhelmed border agents and the whole U.S. immigration system – especially as migrants are released into the country rather than detained.

Since the immigration court system is so backlogged, some migrants released into the country may not even have to appear in court until 2028.

A fourth agent from Texas told the Examiner that the end of Title 42 will simply mean even more strain is put on Border Patrol agents.

'All of these people we can [Title 42] will now have to wait in custody to get processed,' they said. 'Meaning more agents out of the field. Just a bigger strain on agents and resources.'