As Spring break approaches, millions of people look to airlines for travel. With that comes the storm before the calm: getting through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Considering their reputation, long wait times and history of discrimination, it calls into question: Does this process actually protect citizens?
In 2023, Swiss hacker Maia Arson Crimew gained access to the USA’s 2019 No Fly List and Selectee List. This list held over a million entries worth of citizen’s personal data on an unsecured Amazon Web Services cloud server. Crimew then posted a picture of the list on her blog (mostly obscured by a Pokémon plush) with the caption “holy sh-t, we actually have the nofly [sic] list. holy f-cking bingle. what?! :3.” Despite the alarming security breach and millions affected, airlines have seen much bigger issues.
TSA’s most common criticism is the profiling that it entails. Following the Crimew leak, she said that there were “very clear trends towards almost exclusively Arabic and Russian sounding names throughout the million entries.” In an analysis done by Matteo Garofalo for the International Journal for Crime, Justice, and Social Democracy, it was found that all the top 20 most common names on the leaked No-Fly List were “broadly Islamic/Middle Eastern.”
TSA’s Behavior Detection and Analysis program, previously called Screening of Passengers by Observation techniques, is a flawed system that leads to discrimination. The public has scrutinized the program since its inception. The Government Accountability Office criticized TSA for beginning the process “without first validating the scientific basis for identifying suspicious passengers in the airport environment.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, a nonprofit concerned with at-risk civil liberties, released a report based on files obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The report “Bad Trip: Debunking the TSA’s ‘Behavior Detection’ Program,” found that the behavior program had research within its program that reinforced the behavior detection used was unscientific. For example, one file in the program states that in over 100 studies, lying would not change a person’s behavior noticeably. The files contained instructions to determine traits of those who could be lying, including being “vocally less expressive, more passive, and less involved” as well as appearing “less cooperative” and their faces appearing “less pleasant.” Even if research did not find that the techniques used to identify liars were unscientific, these measures are subject to the biases of Transportation Security Officer (TSO) members.
The current administration is hostile towards transgender people, and the TSA is no exception. As of 2024, their website had a section titled “gender diversity” which discussed “the concerns that some members of the transgender/non-binary/gender-nonconforming traveling public have” regarding flying. On this page, TSA clarified that it does not discriminate against individuals based on their sex or gender. If individuals chose to go through the TSA PreCheck program, they would be able to select their own gender beforehand rather than the TSA worker deciding based on their own judgement. For pat-downs, fliers would be able to request a worker of their preferred gender.
As of 2025, this page was removed from TSA’s website and is only available via archives. Now, under the FAQ section, “What can I expect during pat-down screening?” TSA states that the pat-down will be done by a TSA officer of the same sex.
In 2025, TSO Danielle Mittereder sued TSA on the grounds that she was discriminated against for her sex. After Trump issued Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”, TSA prohibited all transgender TSOs from being able to provide pat-downs at all, as well as prohibiting them from using the bathroom aligning with their gender identity. Very few feel positive about getting a pat down while going through airport security, but TSOs are still required to do so.
The idea that transgender people conducting pat-downs puts people in danger or should be stopped is also nothing but blatant transphobia. According to a study by the Williams Institute at UCLA school of law, transgender people are four times more at risk of being raped, sexually assaulted and victims of aggravated or simple assault compared to cisgender people (those who identify with their gender assigned at birth). Despite the study, TSA’s response to EO 14168 supports the disproven ideal that transgender individuals are more likely to be aggressors. Forcing them to have checks done by someone of the same sex instead of gender identity, like cis people are allowed, could lead to more victimization.
Despite this, one might say that while the TSA has problems, it is still necessary to keep people safe. That is not true either.
In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) executed undercover testing to determine how effective the TSA was at discovering potential threats. While a direct number was not provided, ABC News’ source said that it was “in the ballpark” of 80% failure.
This only came two years after a 2015 internal investigation found that 67 out of 70 undercover investigators were able to smuggle in mock bombs and weapons. While 2017 was a staggering nine years ago, TSA has given no indication at all that things have improved. Instead of being open to the public about their issues, the DHS classified detailed results after 2017. Another study was done in 2019 by the United States Government Accountability Office but lacked key metrics (due to the classification).
While speculative, it is also common sense that if a problem this big was being tackled and improved, the government would want to share its success rather than hide it.
As if the DHS had not done enough for TSA’s reputation, they recently made the contentious decision to bring ICE agents to airports amid a TSA workers’ strike. And why were they striking? They had not been paid since Feb 14. On March 26, President Donald Trump signed an emergency order to pay the TSOs. However, the government’s handling of the situation exemplifies the unprofessionalism of the administration.
While TSA agents do not have the best track record at identifying threats, they do go through months of training learning how to operate scanners, search baggage properly and what to do in case they find something dangerous. Deploying ICE agents instead of paying the people trained and hired to take care of airport security is ridiculous.
TSA does not keep people safe and frequently puts travelers in danger rather than protecting them. While it should not be this way, this means a large part of the responsibility to be safe while traveling is up to the individual. Know your rights, especially if you are a part of a protected group. If you are not, keep an eye out for your fellow citizens around you.