N.J. Boy, 8, on Terrorism Watch List

Travel is a hassle for an 8-year-old Cub Scout from New Jersey.

That's because Mikey Hicks shares the same name of a person who has drawn the suspicion of the Homeland Security Department.

His mother tells The New York Times she sensed trouble when her son was a baby and she couldn't get a seat for him at a Florida airport. She says airline officials explained his name "was on the list."

He was patted down as a 2-year-old at Newark Liberty International Airport.

"Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch - someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he's a criminal," Najlah Feanny Hicks told the newspaper. "A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don't catch him. But my 8-year-old can't walk through security without being frisked."

The newspaper says the boy's name appears to be among 13,500 on the "selectee" list, which sets off a high level of security screening.

Transportation Security Administration spokesman James Fotenos says in the coming months, the agency will cross-check names with birth dates and gender.

TSA officials have been under fire of late, after the failed Christmas Day terror plot aboard a U.S.-bound plane and a complete security breach led to a chaotic breakdown at Newark Liberty International Airport. The TSA claimed responsibility for their roles in both cases, and have since taken strides to remedy the holes in the system.