Air marshals call on Biden admin to return them to flights instead of southern border

Air Marshal National Council President Sonia Labosco this week warned that the Biden administration's deployment of air marshals to help with the migration at the southern border was compromising the security of air travel.

Air marshals are currently present on far fewer flights than normal, Labosco told Fox News. Many of them have been reassigned to border regions to supplement existing border authorities that are overwhelmed by the surge in illegal migration.

"We have been decimated. We have been depleted. We're on less than 1% of flights," Labosco said. "These ground-based duties that they're pulling us out of the sky to go to the border are just demolishing our chances at stopping another 9/11."

"There have been numerous incidents — a level 4 threat which means someone tried to breach a cockpit two days ago on a Southwest flight," she added. "So the message is, 'Sir, please replace the air marshals on the border. Stop taking them out of the sky and let us do the job that we were trained to do.'"

Earlier this month, a Utah man was arrested after holding a straight razor to a woman's throat on a flight from New York, the New York Post reported.

Labosco's plea to the administration comes ahead of the Christmas season, during which many more Americans will use air travel than under normal circumstances.