SAN DIEGO, Calif. — More than 1,000 migrants stayed overnight at the San Diego International Airport during a single night last spring, according to newly released emails.
The emails, written by the airport’s chief operations officer, were provided to the Republican-led Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The committee recently released a report titled Flight Risk: How Biden-Harris Border Policies Threatened America’s Airport & Aviation Security.
The report reveals the former administration directed the Federal Aviation Administration to inventory airport facilities nationwide, including hangars and other nonpublic spaces that could be used to house migrants.
San Diego airport officials told the FAA they had no additional space available, according to the report. Inside the airport, migrants were sleeping on the floor in large groups.
The report says other airports in cities like Chicago and New York set up dedicated shelters for migrants. But in San Diego, emails show most of the migrants had same-day tickets for other cities.
Still, the surge appeared to strain resources.
“We have attempted to direct the overnight crowd to one specific location in one of our terminals, using contract security guards. This has been somewhat effective but certainly not a perfect solution,” the vice president and chief operations officer of San Diego’s airport wrote in a May 2024 email.
On any given night, there were 200-400 migrants sleeping at San Diego’s airport, but during one night that number spiked to 1,100, emails show.
Getting an accurate headcount of migrants appeared to be challenging for staff, who said they estimated the daily migrant count was between 800-1,000.
TSA let migrants fly without ID
“We do not have a way to formally count all of them,” the chief operations officer wrote.
At one point during the surge, officials with the Boston Logan International Airport reached out to their counterparts in San Diego for advice after an average of 250 migrants arrived there.
“This number is small by comparison to some other airports, but it is quite taxing on our resources,” the director of aviation services wrote.
To help deal with the large crowds arriving at the border, the federal government diverted air marshals away from airplanes, the committee's report reveals.
“Air marshals were assigned to the border, some involuntarily, for month or more at a time," the report states.
Inside San Diego's airport, the crowds of migrants prompted volunteers to step up and help.
Nonprofit groups started handing out meals to newcomers who were shuttled to the airport after being dropped off at trolley stations by Border Patrol.
The Senate committee found the former administration’s policies made airports and aviation less safe.
Among its findings, the committee confirmed the Transportation Security Administration relied on “unreliable data” from the CBP One mobile app to verify the identities of migrants who lacked traditional identification.
The app, which previously allowed migrants to schedule immigration appointments with border officers at ports of entry, has since been rebranded by the Trump administration as the CBP Home app and is now used as a tool to facilitate deportations.
On a single day in November 2023, TSA processed 1,778 travelers without ID using the CBP One app, the report states.
Lawmakers also found that between April 2021 and March 10, 2024, TSA didn’t track how many migrants were allowed to fly without presenting ID and without submitting to biometric photos at airport security checkpoints.
The committee said after it inquired, TSA began requiring migrants without proper ID to submit a photo.
The TSA said in a statement Thursday that federal air marshals are back in the air protecting Americans.
"The CBP Home app is only being used for illegal aliens to self-deport on one-way tickets out of our country and back to where they belong," said Nick Dyer, a TSA spokesman, in a prepared statement.
The San Diego International Airport didn’t return a request for comment.
