Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, and Tennessee state Rep. Bruce Griffey, a Republican, slammed alleged covert migrant relocations in the U.S. and discussed their new proposed legislation to try and stop taxpayers from having to pay for them on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
Joining co-host Will Cain, Sunday, Hinson discussed her proposed bill to block taxpayer funds being used for migrant flights as Griffey explained his proposal to relocate illegal migrants in the U.S. be sent to the home states and towns of prominent Democratic leaders, such as President Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Their comments come on the heels of recently reported instances of illegal immigrant relocations being conducted.
“The Biden administration is quietly moving thousands of illegals to various states, including Tennessee, by putting them on planes and buses and transporting them in the middle of the night, and we should return them to their sender!” state Rep. Bruce Griffey, who introduced the bill, wrote Wednesday.
“I imagine that if we relocated them to the backyards of those responsible for allowing the flood of illegal immigration across our border, then those with federal power might be more apt to secure the border and secure it quickly.”
On Sunday Griffey elaborated, stressing that “we’ve seen video from other states of migrant flights throughout the United States.”
“I don’t know that we have those in Tennessee, but it’s certainly a major concern for Tennessee and that’s why I proposed this bill,” he continued, stressing the importance of putting “the burden on those districts where these people that make the policy have created the problems for the United States.”
Reports surfaced in October of flights coming into suburban New York transporting migrants from border states. Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino filed a Freedom of Information Act request that revealed footage last week of a local police officer confronting federal contractors on the tarmac of a Westchester airport on Aug. 13, 2021, who were bringing migrants to the state under the cover of the night.
One contractor told the officer in the video that the flights were kept secret, “because if this gets out, the government is betraying the American people.”
The officer reportedly discovered the migrants were being bused to Delaware, Virginia and New Jersey after landing in New York.
Griffey’s bill works to put illegal immigrants into the home states and towns of those he argued are “responsible for our border crisis.” The migrants would be sent to towns such as Block Island, Rhode Island; Greenwich, Connecticut; Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts; Governors Island, New York; Rehoboth Beach, Delaware; Nantucket, Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island; Scarsdale, New York; Palo Alto, California; Yountville, California; St. Helena, California; or North Hero, Vermont.
Biden hails from Delaware, and California is the home state of Vice President Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and others. White House press secretary Jen Psaki is from Greenwich, Connecticut, and North Hero, Vermont, is where Sen. Bernie Sanders has a vacation home.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
However, The White House responded Friday to the leaked video footage that shows migrants being transported on charter flights under the cover of night from southern border states to Westchester, New York, claiming the footage is “not new or news.”
“There are no such things as secret flights,” a White House official said in response to an inquiry from Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy. “The video footage your network has been running endlessly is from six months ago in August. Which by the way, Jen [Psaki] and others in the administration addressed this then too. Not new or news.”
Griffey argued Sunday that “there’s a threatened invasion over in Ukraine, and the United States government is gearing up and getting ready to send our troops over there to protect that country,” pointedly remarking that “we have an invasion going on right now at the southern border … and the Biden administration is intentionally colluding to violate the U.S. laws to bring illegals into the United States,” he said, underscoring the contrast.
He stressed that Tennessee taxpayers should not be responsible for footing the bill, stating that “we need to fix this problem.”
Rep. Hinson has echoed Griffey’s concerns. On Friday, she introduced legislation to ban taxpayer money paying for migrant flights into the U.S. interior amid continued outrage about the practice from Republicans.
The Stop the Betrayal Act of 2022 would bar federal funds being used by the Department of Homeland Security, or other agencies, to transport illegal immigrants into the interior of the country.
It would still allow funding to be used for deportations and the enforcement of immigration law as well as the transport of unaccompanied children to Health and Human Services (HHS) facilities.
The bill comes in response to footage obtained by the Freedom of Information Act request by Astorino.
Hinson said on Sunday that she introduced The Stop the Betrayal Act of 2022 because “we know these [flights] are happening in the dead of night and the Biden Administration is essentially bringing the border crisis to Americans’ backyards.”
“We know this is happening and it’s taking leaked video and leaked audio to get accountability from the Biden administration – so the Biden administration, in my mind, is directly responsible for the board or crisis and my – constituents are saying… this could happen in my backyard,” she argued.
“And so we need to stop taxpayer funding from putting up the dollars to be able to move these migrants, these illegal immigrants, around our country – and they need to stop doing it in secret and spend less time lying to the American people and more time fixing the problems at the border.”
The Biden administration has overseen a massive border crisis in its first year in office — something Republicans have blamed on the dramatic rollback of Trump-era polices, coupled with reduced interior enforcement and a push for mass amnesty. The Biden administration has instead blamed “root causes,” like poverty and corruption in Central America.
But with the ending of policies designed to end “catch-and-release,” it means that a larger number of migrants are being released into the U.S. and transported across the country.
“This is a safety and security issue for… American families,” Hinson stressed on Sunday.
*story by Fox News
