US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s daughter branded TSA ‘unconstitutional’ after she refused to go through a body scanner and almost missed her flight.
Evita Duffy-Alfonso railed against the agency on social media Thursday for subjecting her to an ‘absurdly invasive’ full body pat down in lieu of the scanner.
Duffy-Alfonso, 26, waited 15 minutes to complete her mandatory security screening.
‘I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure…’ she wrote on X.
‘The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman into just walking through the scanner because it’s “safe.”‘
TSA requires all passengers to complete security screening. Anyone who opts out of digital scanners must complete a physical screening from an officer of the same sex.
Still, Duffy-Alfonso claimed she had been ‘treated like a terrorist in [her] own country.’
After the whole ordeal she ‘barely’ made her flight.
‘All this for an unconstitutional agency that isn’t even good at its job,’ she wrote.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s daughter Evita Duffy-Alfonso criticized TSA after a run-in at the airport
The 26-year-old mother-to-be slammed the administration for requiring her to wait for a pat-down when she refused to go to through a body scanner
Duffy-Alfonso called TSA an ‘unconstitutional agency’ and said pat downs were ‘absurdly invasive’
Duffy-Alfonso also went on to criticize the private security company CLEAR for taking passengers’ ‘biometric data’ for the sake of a smoother security process.
‘Is this freedom?,’ Duffy-Alfonso continued, pulling the author of dystopian novel 1984 author into her diatribe.
‘Travel, brought to you by George Orwell—and the privilege of convenience based solely on your willingness to surrender biometric data and submit to radiation exposure?’
According to the TSA, all airport screening equipment is safe for all travelers, including pregnant people.
Walkthrough medical detectors reportedly do not use X-Rays to scan passengers. Instead they employ non-ionizing electromagnetic waves that reflect off the body.
The CDC explained non-ionizing radiation ‘does not add to a person’s ionizing radiation dose.’
TSA advised those who may want to opt out should give themselves plenty of time to go through to their gates.
Duffy-Alfonso noted in the comment section of her tirade that she arrived at the airport one hour and 10 minutes before her flight.
Most airlines recommend arriving at least two hours before departure.
Duffy-Alfonso claimed that if her father were in charge of TSA he would work to have it abolished
Duffy-Alfonso refused to go through the full body scanner because she is pregnant
The transportation secretary’s daughter went as far as to say TSA should be abolished altogether.
‘If [Sean Duffy] did have TSA, he’d radically limit it and lobby Congress to abolish it,’ she responded to a comment telling her to take up the issue with her father.
TSA is under the Department of Homeland Security, run by Kristi Noem.
A spokesperson for the TSA told the Independent that they were aware of the incident.
‘TSA takes complaints about airport security screening procedures seriously and investigates complaints thoroughly to ensure the correct procedures are applied,’ they wrote.
In October, South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace made headlines for her own run-in with the agency.
A police report claimed the 47-year-old MAGA loyalist had a meltdown at Charleston International Airport after she waited six minutes to be escorted through her security gate.
Officials alleged that she called a TSA employee a ‘f***ing idiot’ and ‘f***ing incompetent’ in a report that she dismissed as falsified.
Duffy-Alfonso wrote that her father would ‘radically limit’ TSA and ‘lobby Congress to abolish it’
The 26-year-old said she was ‘treated like a terrorist’ after being subjected to security screening
TSA required all passengers to be subjected to security screening. Those that decline body scanners must receive a pat down
As the right wing rails against TSA, thousands of agents just came off of working without pay during the longest government shutdown in history.
During the 43-day blackout, US airports saw more than 10,000 delays and 2,7000 cancellations.
Republican leaders blamed Democrats for security delays, missed checks and travel chaos while TSA workers handled the brunt of travelers’ frustration.
Now right-wing voices like Duffy-Alfonso are calling for their positions to be removed altogether.
‘The “golden age of transportation” cannot begin until the TSA is gone,’ she concluded.
The Daily Mail contacted TSA for comment.