According to an internal federal report filed by a special Transportation Security Administration unit, that’s the term some co-workers used to describe behavior detection officers, or BDOs, they worked with at Newark Liberty International Airport who inappropriately used racial profiling to pull aside travelers.
BDOs are airport screeners trained to detect suspicious behavior and are authorized to single out travelers for additional questioning. The screeners are supposed to scan for travelers who may be unusually nervous or jittery. But according to a report and related documents obtained by The Star-Ledger in Newark, officers in some terminals at Newark's airport were instead regularly singling out Mexican or Dominican passengers in order to check their visas and passport stamps.
The report found that those who didn’t have their paperwork in perfect order would receive extra questioning, be subjected to secondary bag checks and pat-downs and often sent to immigration based on made-up behavioral irregularities.
Managers apparently condoned the practice.
"It became a joke in the unit, these individuals were called the great Mexican hunters," Newark BDO Paul Animone told investigators in the report. Animone also said that when he disagreed with his co-workers’ actions, he was told by managers he was not a team player.
Investigators began looking into the problem in late 2009 and studied activities at the airport back through early 2008. The report, dated Jan. 25, 2010, notes that the questionable behavior took place in Newark’s Terminal B, an international terminal, and concludes that Mexican and Dominican passengers were singled out for scrutiny at Newark Airport in order to make Newark’s BDO unit seem more productive.
The TSA released a statement saying that it does not profile passengers based on race, ethnicity or religion and that immediate actions taken to address the problem at Newark included retraining all BDOs at that airport.
“While the actions referenced in the report were based on intelligence reports regarding false documentation, criminal or illegal activity and the possible impact on transportation security, TSA’s policies were overstepped,” said TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein. “The manager in question is no longer in management with TSA.”
It's not the first problem TSA has faced at Newark Liberty. Michael Arato, a former security supervisor at the airport, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison last week for his role in a scheme to steal money from travelers' luggage.
No comments:
Post a Comment