Florida gov says Biden admin has landed dozens of secret flights carrying illegal migrants into the state
Migrant families and unaccompanied children are mostly not being expelled via Title 42
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says that more than 70 night-time flights moving migrants from the border landed in Jacksonville since the summer -- amid concerns about the effects of the border crisis on states across the country.
"Over 70 air charter flights [on] jetliner airliners coming from the southwest border have landed at Jacksonville International Airport," Larry Keefe, DeSantis’s public safety czar, told The Washington Examiner.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"On average, there's 36 passengers on each of these flights. And that has been going on over the course of the summer through September," he said.
The Examiner reported that officials said the Biden administration has refused to tell the governor’s office about who is facilitating the flights and other information.
"We're in a sad situation of trying to run an investigation. Who is facilitating this travel? How are they getting here? Who are the support people? Who are the sponsors?" Keefe said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Republicans have been sounding the alarm for months on flights into the interior of the U.S. and other transports of migrants into non-border states.
The Biden administration has only been removing single adults and a section of migrant families under Trump-era Title 42 public health protections. Unaccompanied children are moved into Health and Human Services (HHS) care and then united with sponsors across the country.
Migrant families, meanwhile, have been being released into the U.S. often with either a Notice to Appear or a notice to report at a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office to begin their immigration proceedings.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}There were more than 1.7 million migrant encounters in Fiscal Year 2021, and more than 192,000 in September alone. Critics have accused the Biden administration of fueling the surge with its policies, including "catch-and-release." The Biden administration has insisted upon an explanation for the surge which relies on "root causes" like violence, corruption, and poverty in Central America.
The Examiner report comes days after the New York Post reported that a 24-year-old Honduran national who has been charged with the murder of a Florida man reportedly entered the U.S. illegally claiming to be an unaccompanied minor.
The Post reported that Yery Noel Medina Ulloa was arrested in early October in Jacksonville after he was found covered in blood and was charged with the death of Francisco Javier Cuellar, a father-of-four who had taken him in.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An ICE spokesman confirmed to Fox News that ICE had filed an immigration detainer on Ulloa on Oct. 13, who it said was an unlawfully present citizen of Honduras, following his arrest in Jacksonville for murder.