One of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s nine children is making headlines after putting the TSA on blast following a recent experience at an airport security checkpoint that meant she nearly missed her flight.
Not content with criticizing her experience of asking for a pat-down search instead of walking through a full body scanner, Evita Duffy-Alfonso called for the TSA to be abolished and claimed that if it were up to her dad, this is exactly what would happen.
Evita Duffy-Alfonso refuses to go through TSA body scanner
Sean Duffy’s daughter, Evita Duffy-Alfonso, took to X to slam the Transportation Security Administration after she nearly missed her flight on Thursday morning. For context, Evita is currently pregnant and did not want to walk through the advanced full-body scanner at the TSA checkpoint over fears that the machine would emit dangerous radiation that could harm her unborn child.
“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,” Evita wrote in the explosive post.
“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.'” the post continued.
“After finally getting the absurdly invasive pat-down, I barely made my flight. All this for an unconstitutional agency that isn’t even good at its job. Perhaps things would have gone more smoothly if I’d handed over my biometric data to a random private company (CLEAR).”
“Then I could enjoy the special privilege of waiting in a shorter line to be treated like a terrorist in my own country. Is this freedom? 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?”
Are full-body scanners safe?
Along with traditional arch metal detectors, the TSA uses full-body scanners that are officially known as millimeter wave advanced imaging machines.
The machines have been the subject of a lot of scrutiny over their safety, especially with how much radiation they expose passengers to. The TSA explains that the current generation of full-body scanners uses “non-ionizing radio-frequency energy in the millimeter spectrum with no known adverse health effects.”
The agency adds that these machines meet all national health and safety standards.
The ‘golden age of transportation’ cannot begin until the TSA is gone
Evita has some gripes with the TSA, which are all too familiar to many Americans. Security officers can be surly and unnecessarily rude, almost as if they are on a power trip and want to punish passengers for no good reason.
Critics have long argued that the TSA is more security theater than an agency delivering on its objectives. Unfortunately, passengers have been able to smuggle prohibited items through TSA checkpoints for decades, and there’s little evidence to suggest the agency has gotten much better.
Evita believes that there’s one obvious solution to all of the problems with the TSA: Abolish it.
“The ‘golden age of transportation’ cannot begin until the TSA is gone,” Evita wrote on X.
Evita says her dad would push to abolish the TSA if he were in charge
If Sean Duffy happened to be in charge of the TSA, Evita is convinced that he would be working to abolish the agency, saying in a follow-up post: “TSA is under DHS [Department for Homeland Security], which is run by Kristi Noem. If he did have TSA, he’d radically limit it and lobby Congress to abolish it.”
With her father unable to help, Evita has called on Kristi Noem and President Trump to abolish the TSA, writing in another post on the subject: “TSA = unreasonable, warrantless searches of passengers and their property. That means it violates the Fourth Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional. Pls abolish.”
What has Kristi Noem done to improve the TSA?
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has been largely supportive of the work the TSA does, especially following the record-breaking government shutdown that forced TSA agents to work unpaid.
Noem has, however, called for security screening to be eased, and in July, she abolished the TSA’s ‘shoes off’ policy for travelers who don’t have TSA PreCheck status.
The DHS hopes the updated policy will significantly reduce screening times, although the decision was made, in part, due to the rollout of advanced screening technology like the full-body scanners that Evita objects to.
Republican lawmakers have also tried to abolish the TSA
Evita certainly isn’t alone in calling for the TSA to be abolished. Earlier this year, Republican Senators Mike Lee from Utah and Tommy Tuberville from Alabama introduced the ‘Abolish TSA Act of 2025.
The senators suggested dissolving the TSA over a three year period and replacing the agency with private security firms that would be overseen by a new regulator.
Airports already have the option to replace the TSA through the government’s ‘Screening Partnership Program,’ allowing them to bring in private security contractors to carry out passenger screening at airport checkpoints.
Winning approval is, however, a difficult process, and so far, only around 22 airports across the United States have secured permission to use their own security screening staff instead of the TSA.
Notable examples of airports that are part of the SPP program are San Francisco and Orlando airports.
