Travelers in Texas are reportedly being bumped from flights in favor of asylum-seekers pursuing standby seats at McAllen International Airport.
The immigrants are purchasing standby tickets, and Border Patrol agents are screening them through a process that includes checking documents to ensure none board flights illegally, according to a report.
Homeland Security officials release the asylum-seekers before they arrive at the airport, often in the predawn hours, leaving large numbers of people waiting for a limited number of seats, the report noted.
The number of asylum-seekers filling McAllen International Airport has become so excessive that airlines have begun to suggest passengers arrive hours prior to departure.
One American Airlines spokesperson said the airline is not even tracking the number of asylum-seekers purchasing tickets or asking why they’re traveling, the report noted.
Airport data from 2023 suggest that 15% more people are leaving the airport than arriving.
Now, citizens are apparently being bumped from flights to accommodate the asylum-seekers.
Joel Cavazos, 43, was attempting to fly to Los Angeles on Friday with his partner and 6-month-old daughter when he was bumped from his American Airlines flight, he said.
A frequent flyer, Cavazos was not able to check in via a mobile app, and he was booted from the flight despite making it through a TSA checkpoint with 30 minutes to spare, he said.
His bumping from the flight forced him to miss a business meeting.
“No. They weren’t polite at all. The initial response was, ‘You missed your flight. We gave your ticket to someone else.’ If you’re not here in time, if you don’t check in within 45 minutes, you lose your flight,'” Cavazos said.
“[An American Airlines employee] said, ‘We gave your seat.’ She said we don’t have anymore. We gave it to someone else that was on standby.”
After Cavazos was bumped, the airline refused to remove his bags from the flight, he said.
“As a resident of the Rio Grande Valley, there’s been many times that we show up 10 to 15 minutes before the flight,” Cavazos said.
“There’s usually no one at our airport. You can kind of skim through security as long as you just have your carry-on. You know, the trick is always to not have any checked luggage. As long as you have your carry-on, you can pretty much make it, has never been a problem.”
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In the last few years, Cavazos has noticed a growing number of asylum-seekers making their way on flights, he said.
“You can tell who’s a migrant and who’s not. They have paperwork. They have little folders,” according to Cavazos. “You can tell that they’re not American, per se.”
