A controversial Transportation Security Administration program that uses “behavior indicators” to identify potential terrorists is instead primarily targeting undocumented immigrants, according to a document obtained by The Intercept and interviews with current and former government officials.
The $900 million program, Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, employs behavior detection officers trained to identify passengers who exhibit behaviors that TSA believes could be linked to would-be terrorists. But in one five-week period at a major international airport in the United States in 2007, the year the program started, only about 4 percent of the passengers who were referred to secondary screening or law enforcement by behavior detection officers were arrested, and nearly 90 percent of those arrests were for being in the country illegally, according to a TSA document obtained by The Intercept.
Nothing in the SPOT records suggests that any of those arrested were associated with terrorist activity.
Those results aren’t surprising, according to those involved in the program, because the behavior checklist was, in part, modeled after immigration, border and drug interdiction programs. Drug smugglers and undocumented immigrants often exhibit clear signs of nervousness and confusion, or may be in possession of fraudulent documents.
“That’s why we started rounding up all the Mexicans,” said one former behavior detection officer.
The detailed 13-page report, taken from the SPOT program’s database, shows the number of referrals made by behavior detection officers, the reason for referral, details about the particular incident, arrests and reasons for arrests, and a brief summary of the incident. The Intercept is redacting the name of the airport involved, the identities of the behavior detection officers and other law enforcement agents involved in the referral or arrest, and passengers’ personal identifying information.
The statistics, though a small snapshot from 2007, appear to buttress repeated criticisms of the program by government auditors and outside groups, which allege that the program is being used to profile passengers based on their race.
The Intercept also interviewed a dozen current and former behavior detection officers, TSA officials, law enforcement agents and other government officials who have been closely involved in the program or monitored it. All of them said the program appears to be designed to target undocumented immigrants and drug smugglers.
Many items on the SPOT checklist are traditional clues for human smugglers and the people they are smuggling, such as “individuals who are seemingly unrelated but display identical dress or luggage.”
One former behavior detection officer described homing in on a “group of Latino guys and gals” wearing brand new outfits that looked like they were bought from a discount chain, like Walmart or JCPenney. “They all looked like they were totally lost and milling around like zombies in fresh clothes and haircuts,” the former officer said.
The behavior indicators point to people who appear confused or nervous because they’ve never been to an airport, may be carrying fake identification or none at all, and are scared about their illegal status being discovered. “You’re essentially making [federal air marshals] profile people,” the former behavior detection officer told The Intercept. “That checklist is ridiculous.”
Still, it has continued, and the TSA has refused to release details on almost every aspect of the program: its behavioral indicators and arrest data, as well as evidence of success in spotting actual terrorists. In March, the American Civil Liberties Union, expressing concerns the program was being used to racially profile passengers, sued the TSA, requesting a variety of documents related to the program.
Last month, The Intercept published TSA’s closely held list of over 90 indicators that behavior detection officers use to identify terrorists. The list, which included “bad body odor,” “whistling” and “excessive grooming,” has been widely ridiculed. The latest document obtained by The Intercept appears to back up previous concerns that the program is aimed at undocumented immigrants more than terrorists.
During a five-week period in 2007, behavior detection officers at this airport identified 429 passengers for secondary screening based on their behavior, after which 47 were referred to law enforcement. Thirty-four of those referrals were suspected undocumented immigrants or those traveling with expired visas.
Instead of terrorists, the officers often found undocumented immigrants who were trying to fly home and were nervous about being caught.
“Passenger spoke no English,” read the notes on several of the referrals.
“Passenger stated that she was in the country illegally and was returning home due [to] lack of work. She also stated that she was nervous due to her illegal status.”
Many of the referrals included statements like, “passenger stated he was nervous due to his illegal status.”
There were 16 arrests over the time frame covered by the report — and none of those arrested were terrorists. Fourteen of those arrested were described as “illegal aliens.” One of the arrests was of an intoxicated passenger who was denied boarding and assaulted an officer, and another person was arrested because suspected drugs and drug paraphernalia were found in his luggage.
Since its start in 2007, the SPOT program has been heavily criticized for its lack of scientific methodology, and even more importantly, its apparent lack of success in identifying would-be terrorists after almost eight years of operation. It’s a pessimistic assessment that even some within TSA share.
“If you’re looking for people who exhibit multiple criteria on the checklist to reach the point of secondary screening or law enforcement referral, you’re just looking for illegal immigrants,” said an aviation security official.
The embattled SPOT program has been the subject of numerous congressional, government and DHS investigations criticizing its effectiveness.
“The checklist misses so many signs of potential danger and really just shows signs of a nervous traveler,” said a current TSA employee involved with the program.
TSA did not respond to, or acknowledge, The Intercept’s multiple requests for comment.
Most of those interviewed supported the idea of deploying roving law enforcement officers at airports to search for potential terrorists, but were critical of nearly every aspect of the current program.
One senior homeland security official said the behavior checklist could work, but TSA’s behavior detection officers have not been properly trained to use it. “My guess is most of them wouldn’t have stopped bin Laden if he walked through their lane,” the official said.
Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP
Quite the influx of racist trolls in these comments.
You have to find it amazing how willing these people with a tiny bit of power, agents and the like, are so willing to treat others in ways they would never allow themselves, or want themselves or their loved ones, to be treated. Is their brain washing so complete that they willingly become the talons of such a heinous organization…and do its dirty work for a pittance? All of these people working for the man, who are really working against their own democratic rights, must have been educated by those who were put through the same BS! It is time to educate ourselves!
I’m glad someone is not looking the other way and trying to intercept those in this country illegally. Sheesh …
Nobody wants to break up families. They can all go back to the home country together, a fact that’s not mentioned enough.
They’re ILLEGAL ALIENS. They are criminal invaders. Deal with the facts.
So if I am a TSA agent, I need to go after UNDOCUMENTED immigrants and DOCUMENTary film makers who criticize the government. So if you are here without a green card or if you are Laura Poitras you go straight to the interrogation room.
GAO has clearly stated that the TSA BDO program has little if any value. TSA can not or wil not show any hard evidence that supports the program. The American taxpayer should not be funding any government programs and employees that have little if any value regardless of the purpose. Congress should move to reduce TSA’s budget by a minimum of twice the amount of all costs associated with TSA’s BDO program until either hard proof of the programs value is provided for public review or all employees, administrative and field, associated with the program are removed from the payroll.
Isn’t it wonderful what this Marxist, african muslime, dog-eating, lying sack of $h!t in the occupy White House movement has done to this once great country?
” only about 4 percent of the passengers who were referred to secondary screening or law enforcement by behavior detection officers were arrested, and nearly 90 percent of those arrests were for being in the country illegally”
I guess that cinches it….illegals ARE terrorists….
Illegal aliens don’t have proper credentials. How are they getting on planes without I.D.? This entire story is guilty white liberal racist crap.
The TSA should be using the same security measures that the Israelis use. If they cared about their goals they would.
So TSA is inept at finding terrorists so they thought undocumented immigrants would be easier? This is not their job, their job is to find terrorists.
Oh sure, I believe that one.
Target them all you want, but until you start deporting them, you’re as useless as a bulls mammary gland.
Illegal Alien : Undocumented Immigrant as Looter : Undocumented Shopper.
The program, by these standards, is a remarkable government success. It should be expanded to include government personnel.
Like other commenters, I don’t see the big deal in this story either.
Behavioral analysis originally introduced to catch terrorists, manages to snare drug smugglers and illegal aliens. Yes, and?
It’s like writing a story reporting the fact that a drunk driving checkpoint set up by local police, has led to the arrests of burglars on the way home from a break-in.
This article is misleading. Just because illegal immigrants were caught because they were exhibiting some of the same behavioral patterns as terrorists does not mean they were “targeted”. Should we exclude “nervousness” when trying to profile terrorists because non-terrorists might exhibit it? Totally absurd.
“EXCLUSIVE: TSA ‘BEHAVIOR DETECTION’ PROGRAM TARGETING UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS, NOT TERRORISTS”… you say that like it’s a bad thing…. sounds like good news to me!… now… what do they do when they find them?
Wow, what a failure. The program rounds up illegal foreigners steaming into our country; we FREE them, and and then you BLAME THE PROGRAM that caught them.
“Oh, gee wiz. We caught thousands of people breaking our laws to enter our country and steal our tax dollars and jobs. But not one bin Laden. What a failure!”
this seems somewhat counterproductive, on one hand the DHS and the Border Patrol are allowing records numbers of illegal aliens into our Country and on the hand the TSA is trying to hamper their movements. There seems to be a general lack of coordination, bet then, it is the Federal Government at work here (using the “word “work somewhat loosely).
Illegal aliens should not be flying without a real ID anyway.
Illegals, not undocumented, stop sugar coating the truth.
“its apparent lack of success in identifying would-be terrorists after almost eight years of operation.”
Lack of success? Has the TSA missed some terrorists entering the country? Maybe it’s not a lack of success. Maybe it’s a lack of foreign terrorists.
Good one.
Not only did I not get it done, but I’m over budget too. I’m like a politician…
Exactly. With all the fun going on in Iraq, Yemen and Syria, terrorists are actually leaving to go and fight in those places. All the news I have seen is about people from the US and UK travelling to Turkey in the hopes of hooking up with ISIS. If the TSA is to serve a useful purpose, it will be necessary to do something to encourage more terrorists to travel to the United States. This is perhaps a failure of marketing, rather than a failure of the TSA.
Your moniker is apt.
A shame they can’t come up with software that detects incompetent politicians and government employees … oh, wait, that’s just about all of them …
They need to identify all illegal aliens (undocumented immigrants for you politically correct buffoons)…
They need to identify them so that none get by the TSA, so that the TSA can give them their welcome packet. You know, free phone, EBT card, social security number, instructions on how to file for 3 year retroactive tax rebates, voting instructions… Etc. Etc…
Deport ALL of them and do us a huge favor!
Yea but come on be fair, there aren’t that many actual terrorists so we have to do something to justify all this expenditure.
BINGO!
Expending tax monies on worthless projects seems to be one of the things that TSA actually understands. How about the two warehouses in Dallas filled with excess or defective equipment that TSA pays for? How about the Explosive Trace Portals that TSA paid millions for then tossed in the trashcan? Or how about all of the excessive TSA employees we see standing around checkpoints doing absolutely nothing while travelers are standing in long lines waiting for screening?
What should be done is to defund TSA and fire all TSA employees. The security of airplanes and airports should fall to the owners of the property not the government.
Every bad day for an illegal alien is a great day for Americans. Give whoever created this program a raise!
and notice how they say undocumented instead of illegal
A great day only for Americans like you. And speak for yourself while you’re at it. So, all of those families being torn apart makes your day. That’s sad, but totally normal behavior for a bigot.
Give me a break with your weak and quite frankly empty attempt and blaming what is happening to these families on anyone but themselves. The parents came across the border on their own accord and put themselves at risk. They chose to build a life here built on theft and fraud. They deserve what they get.
In case you haven’t seen the polls, 80+% of us Americans want these animals out of our country. You are the one who should speke for yourself and the less that 20% of Americans who would let these animals stay.
I don’t give a rats behind about their families who are also here illegally, send them all home!
Is that what the polls asked, if people wanted these “animals” out of the country? I think that’s probably your own poll with a dehumanizing term like that. But again, that’s how racists get comfortable with their bigotry: Remove as much humanity from the object of their hatred as possible to deflect attention away from the fact that they are dealing with human beings. I guess it’s much easier to abuse people when you consider them to be sub-human. Adolf Hitler used that tactic a lot. But then, you probably already knew that.
Save us the poor immigrants speech. It’s not bigoted to follow the law.
If you’re here illegally, get the fuck out. I welcome hard working, disease free LEGAL immigrants and no criminal record with open arms. All the rest can stay right where they are; wait to entry the country legally.
Criminals participating in criminal behavior deserve whatever happens to them due to their criminal behavior.
If they are illegal, send them all back…NO anchor babies!!!!!
A great example of the government lying from the very beginning about a program sold to the public on one particular thing, and then the feds just do their particular thing when it passes. Unfortunately, these agencies operate in near total secrecy with no accountability outside the inner circle. That’s why shams of this magnitude can go on for so long. It’s incredible because it wasn’t meant to work, there really was an ulterior motive behind the terrorist justification: Deporting illegal immigrants.
It makes me sick thinking about garden-variety government employees making psychological assessments of passengers based on some perceived behavior on the part of someone for whom the evidence–based on the statistics gathered about this program–will very likely show to be innocent of anything at all. They’re just passengers.
Thank goodness for The Intercept and other organizations and people with the courage and resources to shed light on these activities by agencies increasingly going rogue and writing their own rules and punching their own tickets. Why is this allowed to continue? What and who is really behind crap like this?
RJSteele: Excellent summation. As for who is behind this crap, a combination of bumbling bureaucratic functionaries, determined to protect their jobs at all costs (the entire TSA and much of DHS); corporate leeches such as the scanner manufacturers (L-3, Rapiscan, etc.); phony “experts” such as Paul Ekman and Lillian Glass (he an oft-discredited quack and she “the Body Language Expert for Dancing With the Stars, Entertainment Tonight, and the Insider”); fearmongering politicians who are getting both votes and bribes (which we call “campaign contributions”); and millions of credulous Americans who love their fear and love to lick the authoritarian boot.
Though I won’t stop fighting the TSA and the abuses of the National Security State in general, I have no illusions about things getting better in my lifetime.
I’m not very optimistic myself about change going in favor of the public. Money is the name of the game like never before at a time when the general population is at its most apathetic, disillusioned or otherwise disengaged. Not a great situation.
US customs patrol officers on the Mexican border 40 years ago profiled drug smugglers by the way they drove when they were picking up a load or already loaded: Too slow, hit the brakes a lot or swerved because they were watching the rear view mirror, waited too long at a stop sign, etc. Most of the time the officers got a trunk load or van load of illegal aliens. Were the officers being racist?
Citations. Fork ’em over.
I’m the citation. I was there doing the job. There were so many illegal aliens that the patrol could not help catching them because alien smugglers acted like drug smugglers. But the real story, if you read between the lines, is that the USA is so flooded with illegal aliens, even TSA can’t help tripping over them while trying to profile potential terrorists. And now our gov is flying them in.
‘Just take my word for it.’ No.
Your last sentence gives away just how overflowing with shit you are, as if it weren’t already obvious.
So, you haven’t been keeping up with the news and you have the audacity to insult those that do. Obama is now flying in illegals from Central America so that they don’t have to make the dangerous trek into the US by foot. It’s been in the news for the past few days, Donald. Oh, the memo describing the program also officially changes illegal kids from Unacompanied Alien Children (UAC) to Central American Minors. See Judicial Watch for more.
Actually, Tony is right. Your ignorance of the program to fly in illegal aliens from three Central American countries is not Tony’s fault. Stop paying people to lie to you.
Finally the TSA is doing something positive. Yes, they should be targeting terrorists but, since the president won’t obey the law, it appears they are actually doing something positive for the citizens of this country.
Good! Fry the illegals!
Now if we could just get them to leave the country instead of giving them tax credit and free medical…
They work for beans, put all of that money right back into the economy, and don’t get shit in handouts.
They send BILLIONS to Mexico every year.
Liar
Your comment betrays your Donaldo…
They send the money back home. That’s well documented.
Don, maybe you don’t handouts, maybe you work for beans, but that’s certainly not true for all. Some of the money is put back into the economy – much of it is sent back home to help their families.
Donald B. you stand corrected, most of the money the illegals get payed gets sent to family in their home country.
No, most of it is spent on procuring the bare necessities of life. Anything sent back south of the border is a pittance.
Quite the influx of racist trolls in these comments.
Exactly
So undocumented immigrants = here illegally, right?
Again, at TSA News (TSA News Blog dot com), we’ve been writing about the risible and abusive SPOT program for years.
They’re good at stopping some things. Remember this story about TSA at San Francisco airport? Google “SFO TSA largest penis.” (I’m not posting the URL as TI’s comments thingy might delete this post).
At least hunting illegals is a reason, and the unscientific nature of the guidelines can be called a step up from out and out racial profiling. But to use it on people who are leaving the country… that just doesn’t compute. Most people in Washington are eager to hand out the sort of ‘amnesty’ that means ‘if you can prove you stayed in the country illegally for N years, forged documents, worked off the books, we’ll reward you with citizenship because you’re a winner.’ It would be nice if they handed out the sort of amnesty that means ‘if you’re leaving the U.S. by your own choice, there’s no point putting a black mark on your record and making taxpayers pay first to keep you in a jail cell then to move you out on a special deportation flight.’
“UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS?” What kind of BOLOGNA is THAT?!
The CORRECT nomenclature is **ILLEGAL ALIEN**!
People are SICK of these LEFTIST NAME CHANGE GAMES. Call them what they are, PERIOD, and stop this MORONIC NAME CHANGE B.S.
This leftist is sick of the name of a great city being invoked as an example of supposed phoniness. In other words, it’s “baloney.”
Absolutely right!
Ok, I have real problems with this article right from the start.
Somehow the author felt justified to write an article indicting the entire behavior detection program from a “report” from 2007 (8 years ago!) for a 5 week period, at one airport, when they were just starting this program (and surely they had little idea what they were doing). Like the program or not, how this can be used as a reflection on the program as a whole? Who knows how it has evolved since then. Or even how it worked at that time outside of this airport for this 5 weeks!
If you want to write an op-ed about the negatives of behavior detection and how you think it evolves into profiling which you think is even, then fine. But this is an irresponsible article with a misleading headline. Get some updated information please, then tell us how bad things are. At the very least change the title to TSA ‘Behavior Detection’ Program Targeted Undocumented Immigrants for 5 weeks in 2007 at 1 airport, Not Terrorists. But then right away the reader will realize there isn’t much of a story.
Utah Alumnus, the evidence and many links embedded in the following may shed some light. The BDO program has been discredited not only in 2007 but many times since:
http://tsanewsblog.com/15678/news/leaked-doc-proves-what-weve-been-saying-for-years-tsa-is-nuts/
People say there is a RACE problem. People say this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY and ONLY into White countries.
People say the only solution to the RACE problem is if ALL and ONLY White countries “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-Whites.
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against White people, Anti-Whites agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
Anti-racist is a codeword for anti-White.
White people were produced when pure, black homo sapiens from Africa had wild, unprotected sex with Neanderthals (bestiality?) after they ventured out beyond the continent of Africa. I am not saying this – this is proved beyond doubt by DNA analysis that only black people from Africa are pure homo sapiens. The rest of us have Neanderthal DNA that gives us the light skin color. Now that you know this would you care to modify your comment? If in doubt you can research this all you want.
There was some interbreeding with Neanderthals, and so what? I don’t believe there’s any evidence that’s where white skin comes from. White skin is more likely the result of genetic drift — i.e. pigmentation isn’t required if you have little chance of getting skin cancer. Either way, I don’t see the point of these discussions on biology and anthropology in regards to racial politics.
What a stupid post.
You don’t have to worry. No one’s gonna force you to breed with an “Other.”
No kidding.
You do know this is the same exact program that law enforcement officers all over the country use. How is it “controversial” if the FBI, State and local police officers use the same program. TSA can’t do anything about illegal immigrants anyway. Only the Customs and Border Patrol has that responsibility. If they are nervous, they will get questioned and then fly. You also forgot to mention how many wanted criminals have been caught by the TSA SPOT program and then arrested by Police before they boarded a plane. At least try to get your facts straight before publishing such an embarrassing article.
Tim writes: “You also forgot to mention how many wanted criminals have been caught by the TSA SPOT program and then arrested by Police before they boarded a plane. At least try to get your facts straight before publishing such an embarrassing article.”
According to the GAO (2013 and 2014) and the DHS Inspector General (2013), the SPOT/BDO program is an abject failure. Furthermore, the TSA’s remit is not to apprehend undocumented immigrants, drug dealers, or any other kind of scofflaws. The TSA is supposed to keep bombs off planes, a laughable enough proposition as it is. Neither illegal aliens, drugs, nor terroristy shampoo is going to bring down a plane.
Because you can’t be too careful when they look foreign. Remember this incident? Wasn’t the only such.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8199063/Indian-UN-ambassador-detained-at-airport-for-refusing-to-remove-turban.html
That’s ” foreign” and “sari”.
I’m not sari. And there’s still the question of why the ambassador had a turbine on his head. But do visit New Deli and have what she’s having.
Hahahaha.
mjazz, I’m sure coram nobis can take care of this him/herself, but maybe he’s stepped away from the computer. He was being sarcastic. He deliberately misspelled several words. He’s ridiculing xenophobes.
I believe that the TSA leadership and management are quite well aware that this program as currently run is a total failure. However, nobody wants to admit to wasting almost a billion dollars (for very good reasons), so their answer has been to slowly reduce the number of behavior detection ‘officers’ through attrition, and eliminate them entirely from some small regional airports, where they never should have been in the first place. I believe that there is a place for a small amount of these officers, very highly trained and educated in law enforcement, at our largest hub airports. The problem with for the TSA in changing from the original behavior detection program is making the adjustments to the personnel involved, who are in a separate career and pay structure. Making the change quickly, and retraining a large number of these officers to be TSOs again, would cause a lot of turbulence within the organization, and probably troubles with the union. This being a federal agency, there is simply no fast way to back off from this misstep.
Doesn’t matter, ICE will let them go, giving them a slap on the wrist and the paperwork to file for Obama’s amnesty. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the reason behind this program, to get as many registered as possible.
You do realize this program started in 2007 under President Bush, right? And according to this article, that’s when they were targeting illegals (at least for 5 week at 1 airport).
News flash! Undocumented immigrants are actually ILLEGAL. So who cares if they’re targeted. I so wish douchebags weren’t running the country.
Damn, I thought this was supposed to be one one of the smart comment sections, but I’ve haven’t read racist crap like this since the last article that mentioned Obama and undocumented immigrants. What are you bigots doing here at The Intercept reading articles that you obviously don’t have the capacity to comprehend? Sounds like a waste of time. But, then, so is arguing the difference between illegal and undocumented, when the terms are considered to the general public to be the same.
The whole concept is just stupid and wasteful. And, even if the aim of the program was to “spot” illegal immigrants, why bother detaining them when they’re on their way OUT of the country? So they can deport them eventually anyway? Seems like it’s just another way to keep the taxpayer money flowing in the wrong direction.
You’re assuming they’re all detained while getting on flights to bring them back to their home countries ie: Self-deporting, but that’s quite a leap to take…
Many of the illegal aliens caught up in the SPOT dragnet, could have been apprehended while going from NYC to LAX, or while going on a vacation.
From the article: