Homeland Security Removes 5 TSA Officials Over Biden-Era Watchlist

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that Trump was making good on his promise to ‘end the weaponization of government against the American people.’

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., on July 8, 2025. Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Sept. 30 that it removed five senior officials from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), accusing them of weaponizing a now-abolished aviation security watchlist to target innocent Americans.

The department said in a statement that the dismissals were the result of an internal investigation into alleged abuses committed by officials, in relation to the TSA’s “Quiet Skies” program, which was scrapped by the Trump administration in June.

DHS and TSA will be referring the matter to Congress and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, DHS added.

The department said that the dismissed officials had “systematically watchlisted and denied boarding to those who exercised their individual rights and resisted mask mandates on airplanes nearly six months after the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] relaxed its indoor mask mandate.”

Homeland Security added that the TSA had used the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach “as an excuse to target several dozen U.S. citizens.”

“These Americans were watchlisted and harassed despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing or illegal behavior,” the department said. “This targeted campaign of harassment continued through June 2021, six months after the events in question, despite no clear or immediate threat to aviation security.”

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a Sept. 30 post on X: “[The TSA has] wildly abused their authority, targeting Americans who posed no aviation security risk under the banner of political differences. President Trump promised to end the weaponization of government against the American people, and we are making good on that promise.”

Quiet Skies

The Quiet Skies program, abolished on June 5, was established by the DHS in 2012 under the Obama administration to ensure that higher-risk passengers are more thoroughly searched before they board commercial aircraft.

Once a passenger was identified and put on the list, he or she would be subjected to more invasive security screening by TSA officers at airports.

Conservatives had criticized the program for allegedly targeting them for their political views rather than for posing a genuine security risk.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks at the Building a Legacy: Remembering Charlie Kirk memorial event at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sept. 21, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The DHS referenced an earlier internal investigation that found that the TSA had conducted surveillance on former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard—the current director of national intelligence—under the Quiet Skies program.

In May 2025, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard from its chairman, Rand Paul (R-K.Y.), that he had received records regarding Gabbard’s placement on the watchlist, which he said confirmed suspicions that she had been surveilled by federal air marshals during domestic flights in 2024.

“I am horrified by the idea that we took a former congresswoman and we are surveilling her and riding on jets with her,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said during the hearing. “I want repercussions to come from this.”

An employee with the Transportation Security Administration checks the documents of a traveler at Reagan National Airport in Washington on Jan. 6, 2019. Joshua Roberts/Reuters

On Sept. 30, the same committee held a hearing to examine the “weaponization of the Quiet Skies Program,” adding new documents to the record. The chairman said in a statement that he welcomed the ending of Quiet Skies but said more work needed to be done to ensure that the program does not come back in the future with a different name.

“Every official who directed or approved surveillance of Americans for protected speech must be removed from office,” Paul said. “Full transparency must become the rule rather than requiring a year of investigation.”

Gabbard said via the same statement that the Quiet Skies program “has been used for nearly two decades to target and surveil everyday Americans, violating [citizens’] constitutional rights and civil liberties, targeting political opponents, and costing taxpayers approximately $200 million per year, all while failing to stop a single terrorist.”

Noem said that the TSA’s critical security functions will be maintained and that the Trump administration “will return TSA to its true mission of being laser-focused on the safety and security of the traveling public.”

Arjun Singh contributed to this report.