Airport screeners who aren't citizens have hope

Mercury News ^ | 09/20/02 | Aaron Davis

[Battle Hymn of the Republic]

Hundreds of non-citizen screeners who work at San Francisco International Airport may yet be able to keep their jobs, but efforts to make that happen face tough political opposition with time running out.

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday approved a bill that would roll back the new federal requirement that security screeners be U.S. citizens. At San Francisco Airport, nearly 500 of the 1,000 screeners are not U.S. citizens.

[unixfox]

The aviation security act passed in November bars non-citizens from working as federal airport screeners.

Why did they even have to do this? It should be a no-brainer. But then again who ever said government had much brains anyway.

[BlackbirdSST]

If the citizenship requirement is dropped, thousands more non-citizen screeners theoretically could be rehired during a second wave of federal airport job openings aimed at hiring at least 20,000 new baggage screeners to test checked luggage for explosives by Dec. 31. It's time to start playing that Battle Hymn, for our Republic is in a sad state of affairs. Blackbird.

[07055]

The *only* benefit of "Federalizing" the airport screeners was to allow the firing of non-citizens. Now, they plan to do away with that benefit.

Why don't we just hire some foreign Islamic extremists to do the job and get it over with?

[07055]

Don't the RATS tell us that there is a recession going on? Aren't there American citizens who would love to have a Federal job with all of the accompanying benefits?

Why should we care that foreigners will lose their jobs in favor of American citizens?

[Sloth]

She and others have argued the citizenship requirement is unjust because federal employees who pose a bigger threat to U.S. security -- like members of the military and National Guard -- are not required to be U.S. citizens.

OK, let's fix that, then.

[SpinyNorman]

It sounds like crap to me: I applied about a month ago for a baggage screener job while unemployed. Yeah,the fed benefits sounded good. I am white, in my early forties, and have a Ph.D. I have never received a call back.

Maybe if I was a bit more swarthy and spoke little English, I would have had a chance!

[BlueLancer]

You have to be a naturalized citizen, a born citizen, or a green card holder to become a member of the active Army. We just prosecuted a recruiter for enlisting African citizens (and then providing them with fake green cards, fake temporary green cards, and/or fake social security documentation).

There are, I believe, some exceptions to policy for Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, but I would assume that that is because they're territories. There used to be an exception for some Filipinos, but I think that window was closed a few years back.

[MissAmericanPie]

"Feinstein said her proposed legislation simply gives those who have been failing the job all along a fair chance at competing for the new federal posts.

What's not fair is the fact they are even in our country.

[bert]

For the record... I flew through Las Vegas yesterday. They have no security.

[gaspar]

You have to understand something about DiFi: She hates WHICs (White Christians). Her bigotry leads her to support any cause that will rile the "power structure" and benefit minorities, especially illegals -- even if her action is detrimental to the security of the United States.

[nightdriver]

"The aviation security act passed in November bars non-citizens from working as federal airport screeners."

This makes ultimate sense.

In fact, I stopped flying into SFO because I'll be da@#ed if I'm going to allow some foreigner, who can't speak English, tell me whether or not I can ride on MY airline in MY OWN country!

I speak from experience.

[mewzilla]

Boy, the airlines really wanna sell tickets, don't they?