TSA AGENT INSISTS D.C. RESIDENT MUST SHOW PASSPORT

After looking at a TV reporter’s D.C. driver’s license this past weekend, the Orlando International Airport TSA agent determined that the District of Columbia was a foreign nation

Justin Gray, a reporter for Washington’s WUSA9, was at the Orlando International Airport TSA security checkpoint preparing to board an airliner for a flight back home when a TSA agent asked to see his ID. Gray pulled out his District of Columbia driver’s license. After looking at the license, the agent demanded to see Gray’s passport. Gray told the agent that he did not bring it along and asked why the agent needed to see his passport. The agent told Gray that he did not recognize the license and so the District of Columbia must be a foreign nation. Gray was eventually allowed to board the flight for his return home.

WUSA9 has learned this was the second incident of its kind at OIA, but airline passengers with D.C. licenses have been asked for their passports at other airports throughout the country.

Douglas Kidd, with the National Association of Airline Passengers, said, "They [the TSA] simply have not been either applying or maintaining standards for good personnel."

This incident is not just a reflection of poor TSA personnel hiring practices, but it is also a reflection of today’s sorry state of public education. But wait a minute, maybe I spoke to soon. Come to think of it, that agent was not mistaken. The way things are going on in the nation’s capital, it is easy to see why one might think the District of Columbia is a foreign nation.