Despite their so-called commitment to transparency, the Biden administration continues to hide how they are dealing with record numbers of illegal aliens crossing our border. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has begun flying unaccompanied alien minors (UAC) and family units to cities across the United States under the cover of night.
One local news station, WRCBtv in Tennessee, obtained a video of planes arriving at Chattanooga’s Wilson Air Center “carrying migrant children who are being bussed to multiple southeastern cities during overnight hours.” Two of the busses seen in the video were headed for Miami and Dallas.
At least four planes landed at Wilson Air Center from May 14 to May 19. One source told the news station that “approximately 30 to 50 minors are transported at a time” and “the operation started in Dallas, Texas, but moved to small airports recently to avoid attention.”
Another report claims that UAC flew into Chattanooga on a commercial airline, several days before the four chartered flights. A source on the commercial flight told The Tennessee Star that “a man chaperoning 10 to 15 migrant children between the ages of 10 and 14 onto an American Airlines flight” was “escorting all these young men to Chattanooga for a shelter.” According to the source, the UAC all had “new-looking cell phones, clothes, shoes and backpacks.”
In an op-ed published by The Tennessee Star, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote, “It’s important to realize that all this was happening in the dead of night, without the knowledge of any Tennessee elected officials or community leaders. There was no transparency, no coordination, and no notice whatsoever. This should worry you not only because [Health and Human Services (HHS)] circumvented state authorities, but because the agency itself has a history of operating under a veil of secrecy when it concerns their handling of migrant children.”
Several other Tennessee Republican officials echoed her sentiment. In a letter to HHS secretary Xavier Becerra and DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Tennessee Sens. Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, and Tennessee Rep. Chuck Fleischmann called on the agencies to hold a briefing with them to discuss the management of these illegal aliens and UAC within the state.
It is important to remember that these are several instances at just one airport in Tennessee and it is unknown how many other flights carrying migrant minors came into the state prior to these documented incidents. However, in April, several members of FAIR saw such incidents taking place at an airport in McAllen, Texas, on their way back to Washington, D.C., after spending time at the border to experience the crisis first-hand.
FAIR witnessed a number of migrants boarding flights with manila envelopes that had the names of cities and time stamps written on them in Sharpie, as well as a piece of paper that read, “Please Help Me. I Don’t Speak English. What Plane Do I Need to Take? Thank You for the Help.” It is unclear how these unlawful migrants were passing through Transportation Security Agency checkpoints without proper identification, or who specifically was orchestrating the operation.
President Biden and his anti-immigration-enforcement cohorts in DHS are directly to blame for the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have crossed our border illegally, creating a crisis at our border that continues to rage on. The impacts of these policies are being felt across the nation and Americans deserve to know the truth. With the lack of transparency, the very limited media access, and the covert operations in the dead of night, it leads to the question – what are President Biden and his administration trying so hard to hide?