In Brief: How Illegals Fly to New Homes in America
The Biden administration is sending migrants all over the country.
Without notice, Joe Biden and “border czar” Kamala Harris are flying migrants (especially children) to various states and releasing them there. Two governors — Iowa’s Kim Reynolds and Tennessee’s Bill Lee — want to know why.
The crisis at our border is too big to ignore, and it’s spilling into ALL of our states. I have led a joint letter with fellow Republican governors urging the Biden Administration to take immediate action at America’s southern border. pic.twitter.com/9Igedxj9qr
— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) May 11, 2021
As The Daily Signal’s Fred Lucas reports, there are four things to understand about this situation:
1.) Who Authorizes Flights for Adults?
The Department of Homeland Security now releases illegal immigrants to nonprofit groups that provide documents in manila folders for airport personnel to process.
However, some of the flights relocating illegal immigrants to a desired U.S. location are handled directly by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE Air Operations.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, another agency within the Department of Homeland Security, generally provides certain documents to illegal immigrants to get through airport security for flights arranged by nongovernmental organizations.
Lucas gives as much detail as he could dig up related to the organizations in play, the forms required, and how this is all processed. Needless to say, it’s complicated.
2.) Who Authorizes Flights for Minors?
When unaccompanied minors who cross into the U.S. are flown elsewhere by government action, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, arranges the government-chartered flights. …
In more than 80% of release cases, a child has a relative in the United States and in 40% of such cases, that relative is a parent or legal guardian, according to HHS.
A related question would be how many adults are later permitted to enter the U.S. based on relation with these children?
3.) What’s the Impact on States?
Texas, a border state, had the largest share with 3,904 children; followed by 2,845 in Florida; 2,700 in California; and 2,323 in New York.
Over those six months, the only other states to receive more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors who have sponsors were Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Lucas doesn’t address it, but the cost borne by the states would be a worthy question to answer.
4.) Are These Illegal Immigrants Tested for COVID-19?
In the email to The Daily Signal, the HHS spokesperson said the Office of Refugee Resettlement follows guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for preventing and controlling communicable diseases, including COVID-19.
But…
ICE did not respond to a question from The Daily Signal about whether adult illegal immigrants or families processed by that agency are tested for COVID-19 before being put on commercial flights.
Remember, Biden hit Donald Trump for “xenophobia” for wanting travel bans during a pandemic. Biden, on the other hand, is busy releasing thousands of people into the country, and we just don’t trust the protocols being used.
In any case, the border crisis continues, and it may be coming to a town near you.
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