Official website of the Department of Homeland Security
The TSA Administrator and I both appreciate the recent support we have received from Congress to aggressively address increased air travel and reduce wait times at TSA screening points in U.S. airports. In the face of increased air travel volume, we will not compromise aviation security. We are quickly and aggressively surging resources to keep travelers moving through airports, and to keep them safe.
TSA Administrator Admiral Neffenger and I are acutely aware of the significant increase in travelers and longer wait times at airports, and their projected growth over the summer. With this in mind, and given the current threat environment, last month I directed TSA to take a number of steps.
At the direction of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will initiate a rule change regarding flights to and from Cuba. This action follows U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Transportation announcements that the United States will re-establish scheduled flights between the United States and Cuba.
WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced the expansion of the DHS Blue Campaign’s public awareness efforts to major airports, truck stops, and motorist gas stations across the country to better enable Americans to recognize and report potential instances of human trafficking. Travelers will now see Blue Campaign messages in new locations throughout their journey. For the first time, these messages will describe the signs of human trafficking to help the general public more readily recognize and report this heinous crime.
The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security has provided me with a classified, preliminary briefing that reflects test results centered largely on a specific manner in which someone may seek to bring prohibited items through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening into the secure area of an airport. It is important to remember that all air travelers are subject to a robust security system that employs multiple layers of detection and protection, many of which are not visible to the traveling public.
WASHINGTON— Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson announced today the United States intends to enter into negotiations to expand air preclearance operations to ten new foreign airports, located in nine separate countries: Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. If negotiations are successful, preclearance – where each traveler undergoes immigration, customs, and agriculture inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) before boarding a direct flight to the United States– could be completed before departure from these foreign airports rather than upon arrival in the U.S. Expanding the preclearance program is both a security imperative – enabling CBP to stop potential threats before they arrive on US soil – as well as a strong economic opportunity.
I commend the work of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service to bring criminal charges against 14 baggage handlers and co-conspirators, for circumventing TSA checkpoints and illegally transporting drugs across the country.
Today, I am announcing that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will take additional steps to address the potential insider threat vulnerability at U.S. airports. These steps follow a 90-day Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC) comprehensive review conducted at my request in January 2015. I also asked the ASAC to identify other trends to determine if additional risk-based security measures, resource reallocations, new investments or policy changes are necessary.
Today I visited with our Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel in New Orleans, including three who were at the scene of the attack, last Friday night, by a deranged man with a machete and other dangerous items.
The senseless act of violence that occurred last night at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is a reminder of the variety of threats we face and the important work that the men and women of the Transportation Security Administration do every day to keep millions of passengers traveling through our airports safe.
