Francisco Canseco Claims TSA Assaulted Him

Rep. Francisco Canseco (R-Texas) and a TSA agent got into a scuffle over whether a recent security screening went too far, according to KENS 5, a San Antonio CBS affiliate.

"The agent was very aggressive in his pat-down, and he was patting me down where no one is supposed to go,” said Canseco. “It got very uncomfortable so I moved his hand away. That stopped everything and brought in supervisors and everyone else."

Canseco, a freshman Republican who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, told KENS 5 that the agent and he both claimed they were assaulted during the exchange. An aide to the congressman told Politico that no citations were issued.

A week later, Canseco was back at the San Antonio International Airport and again there was discussion with the TSA, followed by a pat-down, but no assault charges this time.

Canseco is not the first Republican congressman to run into trouble at security checkpoints. In January, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that the TSA detained him in Nashville after he refused to be patted down. The TSA said that Paul was not detained, but police escorted him out of the screening area when he refused to cooperate. He missed his flight and dad Ron started a fundraising campaign to "end the TSA."

"As President, I pledge to do everything in my power to strengthen our national security by ending the theatrical sham that is the TSA," he wrote in a letter to supporters.

UPDATE: Canseco emailed HuffPost a comment on the TSA:

“The American people expect and deserve to be safe and secure from the threat of terrorism when they board a commercial aircraft. However, I believe that TSA has become an agency without restraint, and its overzealous policies threaten people’s personal dignity and freedom. There are other ways of securing airways from terrorists without forcing people to make such sacrifices, which I believe we in Congress should look into.”

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[Anc1entMar1ner]

03:25 PM on 05/02/2012

Please contact your congressman and senators - ask that they withhold funding for TSA until the agency respects the Constitution and the traveling public. Specifically:

1. Remove and destroy all imaging machines that potentially can "see" under our clothing.
2. End all invasive patdowns that involve touching genitalia unless there is probable cause to believe that the individual has committed a crime.
3. Cease immediately harassment of people who assert their constitutional rights during airport screening.

Our lawmakers need to hear from us on this issue. Thank you.

[Suzanne Noel]

07:18 PM on 05/04/2012

Excellent post!!! I am going to copy and paste this and use it from now on.

[Jim NLN]

02:31 PM on 04/26/2012

It moved!

[offcenterlevi]

10:42 AM on 04/26/2012

I too have had TSA agents treat me with a total lack of respect. Bin Laden said that his goal was to bankrupt America and make life difficult for its citizens. He has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Thanks to Obama al Qaida has been decimated in recent years and is much less of a threat. Truth be told, they were never much of a threat. They got lucky on 9/11. The very simple act of locking cockpit doors has made it impossible for them to do that again. So xray our bags if you must, but stop making it so difficult and unpleasant for us to travel. Since 9/11 there have been tens of thousands of flights. Intelligence has been our best weapon against terrorism, and has kept us safe. The only overt act I can think of was the pathetic underwear bomber. He was easily stopped. The main result was that passengers were further inconvienced for no good reason.

[Janet Eason]

09:29 AM on 04/26/2012

This morning they put out the "BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID...ALKIDA IS COMING AGAIN" on the television, and I am sick and tired of this fear mongering, so people can keep their jobs in Homeland Security, TSA and Terrorism Task Forces across this country. Want to balance the budget, tell these millionaires and billionaires we are no longer going to keep these programs, and if they want to keep them, they can pay for them ! Generally in Memphis, if your a VIP, you get a pass anyway. Finally, the worst terrorist/threat are our own people (Sovern Citizens, Arian Nation...), and its our local police that get killed and nothing is ever done to stop this !

[Jim NLN]

02:32 PM on 04/26/2012

Stop watching FAUX News!

[G757]

10:59 PM on 04/25/2012

Welcome to the law YOU passed and the rest of us live with.

[HellaGood1]

10:43 PM on 04/25/2012

I don't believe for a second that this man was assaulted. His ego probably got the better of him during a frustrating process that most people go through and are not happy about. He probably said or did something out of said frustration to the TSA agent and then claimed it was done to him (seriously, under all that surveillance, do you really think a TSA agent will assault someone?). And now he's sponsoring legislation about it?!! give me a break!

[floydwhtny]

05:38 PM on 04/25/2012

Now that you know about feeling uncomfortable, stop fighting a woman’s right to decide what she wants to do with her own body, or is this just a story of a forbidden and secretive relationship between two cowboys.

Brokeback Mountain "Quico" style

[Pferdefreund]

05:35 PM on 04/26/2012

Great comment F & F

[Busterx4x]

05:37 PM on 04/25/2012

In my humble opinion. the mere existence of the TSA is the evidence that Osama Bin Laden has won the "war on terror". The only victims of that war are a few muslim terrorists and the entire citizenry of the United States.

[Michael Lindley]

05:09 PM on 04/25/2012

No one would miss the TSA, GWB's worst moment. They absolutely SUCK. But if the agent is cute, he can touch my junk (gently, please!) all he wnts!

[evolandscaping]

05:12 PM on 04/25/2012

sick freak

[seanrm92]

04:55 PM on 04/25/2012

Get rid of the TSA and let airports handle their own security. The airports will find that it's more beneficial for them to provide their own security--because if people don't think it's safe to fly, they won't fly. And if people feel that an airport's security is too intrusive, they won't use that airport--or just not fly. If left to their own devices, airports will eventually find the most efficient and least intrusive way to provide a decent level of security for their customers. Market forces are WAY more effective than the government.

[pes50]

05:19 PM on 04/25/2012

do you remember 9/11? Market forces were at work then. And apparently they didn't work too well.

[Busterx4x]

05:31 PM on 04/25/2012

I disagree. We are as exposed now as we were before 9/11, the absence of a significant event since then notwithstanding. There is little reason to believe, in my humble opinion, that the TSA contributes anything other than *perceived* security.

Look, it's easy. There are risks to being a free nation. Our alternative is to sacrifice our freedoms in exchange for some perceived security. Benjamin Franklin said it best, "He who sacrifices liberty for security deserves neither".

We should stop acting like sheep under the thumb of the TSA which provides nothing more than a little bit of political theatre in pursuit some some perceived security.

[seanrm92]

05:33 PM on 04/25/2012

Obviously. So if left to their own devices, the airport would have increased their own security soon afterwards. They don't need the government to tell them that their security wasn't good enough. If the airport didn't realize it, the customers would--and they would choose a different airport or not fly altogether. Even the airlines might choose to stop providing service to an airport that they felt was insecure and posing a risk to their fleet. This would put pressure on the airport to beef up their security, and probably other airports as well.

[mwiz]

04:51 PM on 04/25/2012

I just can't wait for the day when a Republican gets pulled over for a benign traffic stop, gets taken to the station for whatever reason, then strip searched. Lets see how they like their conservative Supreme Court then. It's all fun and games (aka "national security") until YOUR civil liberties are trampled on.

[Mr College]

04:53 PM on 04/25/2012

so by default you think the TSA should continue sex molesting and radioactive x ray scanning?

[Busterx4x]

05:32 PM on 04/25/2012

I think the TSA should be disbanded. Period.

[evolandscaping]

04:58 PM on 04/25/2012

I am a republican & have had that exact thing happen several times. I am young, & an MMJ patient, & have had well over a hundred "run-in"s with Police, various agencies, all around the Country. I am also a Republican. Youstatement is just plain ignorant, in many ways.
Ron Paul 2012

[evolandscaping]

04:50 PM on 04/25/2012

The TSA, ATF, DEA, DHS, etc. are all much greater threats to our Freedom, our Prosperity, & our way of Life than any random act of terrorism ever could.
These Extra-Governmental Organizations are directly undermining our Constitution & the Liberties guaranteed under American Law within.

[Busterx4x]

05:33 PM on 04/25/2012

Perfectly stated. Thank you.

[evolandscaping]

04:39 PM on 04/25/2012

Check out Rand Paul's End the TSA

[evolandscaping]

04:37 PM on 04/25/2012

They should just put a Taser in behind every middle passenger seat, & an alarm that goes off when someone pulls it. Then there will be plenty of people to take out a potential terrorists.

[sarahg1243]

04:36 PM on 04/25/2012

Here we go, yet another of myriad of stories about these wacko, extremist TSA agents. These people have forgotten that Americans are free people and a people who were once respected by people in positions of power. Now it seems that Americans are treated with enormous and unforgivable disrespect and as though they are nothing more than chattel property. I would love to see that agency totally gotten rid of. They are nothing but extremist, abusive lunatics. I bet if they could face charges for disrespecting and mistreating American citizens, they would find a more civilized and reasonable way to make the airways safe, instead of treating everyone, even 95 year olds, as though they are friggin' terrorists. Totally un-American.

[evolandscaping]

04:42 PM on 04/25/2012

Vote Ron Paul - He's the Only One who is trying to Stop this Tyranny!