Once again, another story at a US airport has ended up setting social media on fire and reopening a debate. This time, the spark was lit by Evita Duffy-Alfonso, daughter of the Secretary of Transportation, after she shared her experience with the TSA, which according to her own words was humiliating, invasive, and completely out of place.
Obviously, her account went viral and many people began to ask whether the TSA is really still protecting citizens or if they are exercising excessive control with no real usefulness.
Excessive screening
Evita explained that she almost missed her flight for refusing to go through the body scanner. The reason? She is pregnant and, although authorities insist that these devices are safe, she preferred not to take the risk. Something understandable for those who want to protect their babies, obviously.
She chose a manual pat-down, and according to her account, what followed was constant pressure to change her mind and a physical search she described as “absurdly invasive”, all while watching other passengers pass through without problems. Was she punished for saying “no” to the body scanner?
Abolish the TSA
Evita accused the agents of a passive-aggressive attitude and called for abolishing the TSA, not reforming it, not improving it, but eliminating it. And to no one’s surprise, many users on this social network also supported her request.
Thousands of people have shared their own stories about screenings, and they are all very similar: excessive searches, applied arbitrarily. Far from seeming like an election campaign stunt, there were people of all ages and from different ideologies and cities, but all with the same feeling.
I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down because I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner. The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman…
— Evita Duffy-Alfonso (@evitaduffy_1) December 18, 2025
Are scanners mandatory?
According to the TSA, current scanners use non-ionizing energy and pose no health risk, but here we are talking about consent. And for sensitive groups such as pregnant women, people with medical conditions, or survivors of abuse, the mere fact of being forced to choose between a scanner or a physical pat-down is already an extreme situation.
“Security theater”
Many experts have been talking for years about what is known as security theater, visible control, long lines, lots of rules, but rather questionable results.
In fact, internal audits have shown in the past that prohibited items have passed through checkpoints far too easily, so the system is simply not working.
A constitutional problem?
Evita went one step further and spoke directly about fundamental rights. For her, these searches without a warrant are close to the limit of what is reasonable under the Constitution.
TSA = unreasonable, warrantless searches of passengers and their property. That means it violates the Fourth Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional. Pls abolish @realDonaldTrump @Sec_Noem
— Evita Duffy-Alfonso (@evitaduffy_1) December 18, 2025
Can the TSA really be abolished?
Some Republican lawmakers have pushed proposals like the Abolish TSA Act, which seeks to replace the agency with regulated private security. Does it have real chances right now? Few.
In addition, there are precedents, since more than twenty airports in the US already operate with private security under federal supervision and continue to function.
Are real changes coming?
Abolishing the TSA tomorrow does not seem realistic, but neither can the dissatisfaction of so many travelers be ignored. How many more stories like this are needed for real changes to happen? Traveling should not be an interrogation for anyone.