Thread: Airlines ticket agent charged as illegal immigrant

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news ... 237498.htm










--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted on Thu, Aug. 10, 2006



Airlines ticket agent charged as illegal immigrant




A federal grand jury yesterday indicted a United Airlines ticket agent at Philadelphia International Airport on charges of living in the United States illegally.

The indictment charges that Jessica Maxwell-Duntin, 39, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, illegally reentered the United States after having been deported in 2002 for overstaying her visa. Assistant U.S. Attorney Terri Marinari said Maxwell-Duntin is likely to be deported again. She declined further comment.

John Kelleghan, the acting special-agent-in-charge of the Philadelphia division of Immigration Customs Enforcement, said: "By arresting and removing this individual from her position, we have eliminated a serious vulnerability in the Philadelphia International Airport critical infrastructure."

United Airlines spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said she would not discuss personel matters, but added: "If needed, we are always happy to cooperate with authorities."

Maxwell-Duntin, who lived in North Philadelphia, was in federal custody yesterday and could not be reached for comment.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Shiffman





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.philly.com

United Airlines spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said she would not discuss personel matters, but added: "If needed, we are always happy to cooperate with authorities

I have worked in the airline industry and that woman had to have and FAA clearnace in order to get a badge that would give her access to the airport for work. The entire airport. I don't see how she could get an FAA clearance if she had a deportation order.

Originally Posted by Newmexican

United Airlines spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said she would not discuss personel matters, but added: "If needed, we are always happy to cooperate with authorities

I have worked in the airline industry and that woman had to have and FAA clearnace in order to get a badge that would give her access to the airport for work. The entire airport. I don't see how she could get an FAA clearance if she had a deportation order.

Newmexican,
Those things happen because things are out of control, and whoever is in charge of the administration is not doing the work.

Same as a woman I know who got a social security that said "NO GOOD FOR WORKING" This woman blocked the "no good for working" and has been using that social security as a legal person, she is working as a teacher, her husband 44 years old died, and she is collecting social security for her illegal child 12 years old until he gets to be 18, the father worked for 10 years in this country, he was also illegal. I heard that this woman got her permanent resident visa a couple of month ago. She entered this country with a tourist visa, and never left, she altered the social security they gave her no good for working, and now she is a permanent resident of this country. So tell me what is this? When someone becomes resident or citizen they don't check the records? Is this country under control? It means to me that whoever is in charge of those positions are not paying attention to what is going on, and apparently no one is supervised.

So an airline ticketing agent is a job that "Americans won't do"? I'm so tired of hearing how the illegal aliens are doing the jobs that American's won't.

I have worked in the airline industry and that woman had to have and FAA clearnace in order to get a badge that would give her access to the airport for work. The entire airport. I don't see how she could get an FAA clearance if she had a deportation order.

I dont know which airport you worked at Newmexican, but I worked at this very airport (Philadelphia International Airport) from 1995-2003, and i can assure you that both the FAA and the PIA Airport Ops take no active role in determining eligibility or legal status of airline employees. The onus to do so is soley the responsibility of the airline.

Here's how it works (for U.S. Air anyway):

When a new employee is hired, or transferred, their station manager sends that persons info to the airport ops ID office via airport mail (think inter-office delivery). The station manager is sent back an appointment for the employee to attend an airport security briefing (which is a required to obtain an id) as well as an appointment to have their id made. As proof that the employee attended the briefing, they are given a card which must be signed by the instructor and presented at the ID appointment.

As long as ones name is on the ID offices list, and they show up for their ID appointment with a signed security briefing card in hand, they are good to go!

That said, I do believe TSA's, though contracted through private companies, ARE subject to FAA screening/background checks.

I was a flight attendant, gate agent and reservations person at one time or another. When I worked for United my badge was for Dulles. My last badge was for COS, but I also worked at IAD when I was grounded for medical. Since the FAA approved the badges, I assumed (get in trouble every time for that) that they actually checked.

Slightly off topic, but I was at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, VA (right outside of DC) a few months ago, and a predominantly Latino road crew was doing road construction within the airport's grounds. While I'm sure not all of them were illegals, I did contact ICE, to let them know that there's a good chance that there's probably some illegals in this group, and they are on our nation's critical infrastructure (i.e. an airport.) The customer service rep said that she couldn't do anything, because just because they were predominantly Latino doesn't mean anything. She's right to a point, but ICE is really big into investigating our critical infrastructure, and everyone knows that this road crew probably had some illegals...I just couldn't prove it. Very frustrating!

Sorry, just had to get that out. I was happy to hear that earlier this summer, 55 illegals were arrested at nearby Dulles Airport. If they'd listened to me, they could've gotten several more!

Ostrich

Ostrich,
I was at the Walmart in Manassas VA two years ago and they had to go find someone that spoke English when I had a question. When I first moved to VA in 1988 you coudn't even find a can of El Paso chiles in the stores.
The politically correct attitude of "we don't know that they are illegal just because they are hispanic" is hogwash.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has very expensive personal property taxes and they are relentless in trying to collect it. When we moved back to Colorado we recieved tax bills for our cars from Virginia and had to prove, with bills of lading, when we had moved.
I wonder how well they are doing at collecting from the illegals that suck up more services than they pay for.

Slightly off topic, but I was at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, VA (right outside of DC) a few months ago, and a predominantly Latino road crew was doing road construction within the airport's grounds.

The entire time I worked at PHL, even after 9/11, the contracted work crews that cleaned the planes were almost entirely made up of spanish speaking hispanics. I have no doubt in my mind many were illegals but again, they were able to get FAA aproved airport employee ID's. I suppose like airline employees, their eligibility to work there lies with their employers, not the FAA. This used to bother the heck out of me, especially after 9/11, considering that these people work within the aircraft itself.

Originally Posted by greyparrot

Slightly off topic, but I was at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, VA (right outside of DC) a few months ago, and a predominantly Latino road crew was doing road construction within the airport's grounds.

The entire time I worked at PHL, even after 9/11, the contracted work crews that cleaned the planes were almost entirely made up of spanish speaking hispanics. I have no doubt in my mind many were illegals but again, they were able to get FAA aproved airport employee ID's. I suppose like airline employees, their eligibility to work there lies with their employers, not the FAA. This used to bother the heck out of me, especially after 9/11, considering that these people work within the aircraft itself.

I was at the airport last week in N.Y., and I could swear that those women who are walking around cleaning, and cleaning the airplanes are illegal, I could tell. Well, I' am one of those that after 9/11 I said I will never again go in an airplane, i just don't trust the security they say they have, if they employ people who are working with fake documents, and no one knows who they really are, how can they say that we are not at risk?