Extra TSA checks surprise fliers before Carter funeral, Trump inauguration (original) (raw)

When Taylor Burkett, 18,arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Saturday, she noticed three or four Transportation Security Administration agents stationed near her gate.

Burkett, a freshman returning to the University of Maryland, said the sight made her “uneasy.”

“I thought there was some sort of threat made towards the airport or our flight,” she said.

Burkett said the agents double-checked everyone’s identification, including hers, before they boarded their Alaska Airlines jet to Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. She said other travelers, many of whom appeared to be young White men, were selected forpat-downs and luggage searches. TSA agents also asked for the last names of every passenger, she said.

Burkettis one of dozens of travelers who flew into the Washington region from as far as Houston and San Francisco in recent days who have reported that TSA agents have stepped up their security measures, performing additional screenings at airport gates.

The enhanced screenings come as Washington prepares for several high-profile events, including former president Jimmy Carter’s state funeral Thursday and President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20.

This week also marked the fourth anniversary of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Five people died as a result of the riot, and more than 140 police officers were injured defending the building. Nearly 1,600 people have been charged in the attack, and more than 1,250 have been convicted. In the days that followed, airlines and airports tightened security, and carriers banned some travelers who behaved aggressively on flights. Citing a “mob mentality,” a union representing flight attendants called for rioters to be restricted from flying home from D.C.

TSA said this week that it has been on high alert. “We are in a heightened period of security related to recent incidents and we’re going into another period where we have high national security events,” the agency said in a statement Tuesday, referring to the certification of Trump’s election win, the Jan. 6 anniversary, Carter’s funeral and Trump’s inauguration.

Rich Davis, a senior security adviser at International SOS, a health and security risk management firm, said recent events such as the Bourbon Street attack in New Orleans and the Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion have further heightened TSA’s vigilance.

Agencies such as TSA “have to deal with both threats that might be known through the intelligence agencies, and, of course, they always have to be aware of threats that might be in the works where we have no intelligence,” he said.

Davis said TSA works to address known and unknown threats by screening passengers, searching checked and carry-on luggage, and requiring airlines and airports to perform their own security screenings.

“They have the option to decide if they want to do additional screening on you or me, or open up an additional carry-on bag or three, open up an additional checked baggage or three or 33,” Davis said.

Authorities have rolled out more streamlined security checkpoints in recent years with the use of facial recognition technology, meaning some travelers no longer have to show a boarding pass or even, in some cases, identification. That trend could make manual boarding pass and ID checks feel even more unexpected, especially after travelers have gone through a checkpoint.

Passengers traveling to Reagan National, Dulles International and BWI airports told The Washington Post and reported on social media that TSA agents reviewed identification and boarding passes and searched their carry-on luggage in a secondary screening just before they boarded the plane, well past the standard security checkpoint.

Some have asked other social media users whether what they experienced is normal. Although the extent of the secondary security screenings varied — some said they were “swabbed” by TSA agents; others said there were bomb-sniffing dogs at their gates — many of the travelers worried that the heightened measures indicated a serious threat.

Mike Davis, whose United Airlines flight landed at Dulles on Monday night, said at least four TSA agents checked everyone’s identification — including his — against their boarding passes at the gate at Denver International Airport.

In an interview, Davis, the founder and president of the Article III Project, a conservative judicial advocacy group, said he wondered whether there was a legitimate terror threat or whether the security was a political show of force tied to the Jan. 6 anniversary. A Trump loyalist who was floated as a possible attorney general pick during the campaign, Davis has called for the president-elect to pardon Jan. 6 “protesters who fell victim to radical Democrat lawfare.”

Davis said he had only ever experienced such extra security screening when traveling overseas.

In recent years, some travelers have noted on Reddit and frequent-flier message boards that they also experienced TSA checks at the gate. But the recent examples have gained heightened attention because of their frequency and timing.

“Nothing is more important to TSA than ensuring the security of our nation’s transportation systems and keeping the traveling public safe,” the TSA statement said. “TSA’s multiple layers of security are both seen and unseen to keep threats at bay and our transportation systems secure.”

Mildred Degboe, a student at Howard University, counted three agents near her gate at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Saturday. Degboe, 21, was returning to Washington after attending her church’s annual youth conference.

“My first thought was like, ‘Oh, what kind of people are flying out of Atlanta?’” Degboe said. “But now, looking at it, I think it kind of slipped my mind all the security risks that come with being around here.”