The Biden administration resumed its operations of flying unaccompanied migrant children to sponsors and relatives within the United States on Thursday night, ending a pause enacted last year amid public scrutiny of the policy.
The children were flown out of El Paso, Texas, and transported to an airport north of New York City, where an unknown number of migrants boarded three buses, including one that traveled to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, according to the New York Post. Republicans criticized the decision as an insult to hard-working New Yorkers.
“The resumption of flights is a big middle finger to hard-working New York taxpayers,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino said. “It’s frustrating. It’s outrageous.”
Astorino, a former executive in the county where the plane landed, accused New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of complicity because she approved a state budget that allowed illegal immigrants 65 and older to apply for Medicaid benefits.
“We’ve got high taxes, failing schools, with crime out of control, and we’re using taxpayer dollars to aid illegal immigrants,” Astorino said.
Although there was a pause in flights being sent to the Westchester County airport after the groups of migrants made headlines last year, the operation continued in other airports in the U.S., a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement source said.
Migrants who crossed the southern U.S. border illegally have also been transported throughout the country via charter buses, including to Washington, D.C. Some governors have argued they feel a responsibility to police the border, enacting measures at the local level to deter illegal immigration.
“As the federal government continues to turn a blind eye to the border crisis, the state of Texas will remain steadfast in our efforts to fill in the gaps and keep Texans safe,” Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said.”By busing migrants to Washington, D.C., the Biden administration will be able to more immediately meet the needs of the people they are allowing to cross our border. Texas should not have to bear the burden of the Biden administration’s failure to secure our border.”
State troopers will no longer be checking commercial trucks for migrants and drugs that pass through Texas’s southern border, part of a compromise with Mexican border states that Abbott announced Thursday, a reversal from the inspections the governor first implemented last week. Mexico will instead provide more robust security on its side of the border.
Nearly 6,000 immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border every day in February, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. However, the number is expected to increase to 18,000 per day in May after the lifting of Title 42, which allowed the expulsion of adult migrants during the COVID-19 health crisis.
* story by The Washington Examiner
