CBP Move Strongly Opposed By U.S. Pilot Unions

A photo posted on the website Pilot Partisan shows a covered sign at the Abu Dhabi airport that directs passengers to a pre-clearance area. U.S.  Customs and Border Protection even as Congress drafts legislation to prevent the move and over the strong objections of U.S. pilot unions.

CBP Acting Deputy Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said in prepared testimony in a hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade July 10 that "CBP’s preclearance operations are an important step in the U.S. government’s effort to prevent terrorism from coming to our borders. As President Obama said at the National Defense University on May 23, “the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11." After 9/11, as this Subcommittee is well aware, a host of measures were put in place by the Congress and the Executive Branch to increase security at U.S. airports and ports of entry.

"Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and CBP have access to improved screening tools, new legal authorities, and thousands of trained security professionals that make it harder than ever, for a terrorist to enter the United States by air. However, the threat continues to evolve. The attempted terrorist attack on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami on December 22, 2001, and on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25, 2009, demonstrate that terrorists seek to avoid U.S. screening and targeting efforts by carrying out attacks on U.S.-bound aircraft before arrival in the United States."

McAleenan said that preclearance operations in Abu Dhabi would assist CBP in preventing terrorists, illicit cargo and other national security threats from gaining access to aircraft flying to the United States from the UAE. As examples of the importance of engagement with the UAE for preclearance activities to enhance U.S. security:

"Abu Dhabi ranks in the top 10 origination airports for travelers who are positive matches to the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB)," he said. "UAE receives flights from Yemen, North and East Africa (Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Sudan), Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Bangladesh, and India, all high risk pathways for terrorist travel. Fewer than 5 percent of refused travelers arriving on flights from Abu Dhabi in the last two years were Emirati citizens; most were transit passengers from India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. 70 percent of the U.S.-bound commercial passengers from Abu Dhabi International Airport are in-transit from other countries."

The unions, however, say that the pre-clearance facilities will make U.S. airlines less competitive in that area of the world. Pilot Partisan, which is maintained on the Internet by ALPA, says that if it is allowed to open, the pre-clearance facility "would be a tax-payer funded give away to Etihad airlines, offering the airline a competitive advantage over US carriers by granting them a convenience unavailable to domestic airlines.  This threatens the jobs of aviation workers and the diversion of taxpayer dollars to assist wealthy foreign airlines cannot be justified, especially in a budget environment in which U.S. airports have been understaffed for years, causing our passengers to wait in long customs line."

ALPA has created a website supporting its position on the Abu Dhabi pre-clearance facility which offers pilots suggestions on how to contact members of congress in relation to the issue.

FMI: www.cbp.gov, www.alpa.org/portals/alpa/drawthelinehere/