Upstate NY Mayor Rips Biden For ‘Clandestine’ Flights Of Migrant Teens

Biden’s secret flights continue and it seems that the administration isn’t coordinating with local officials…

This was the very complaint that the Biden administration made about Republican governors facilitating the travel of migrants to their final destinations in so-called “Sanctuary Cities.”

Here’s White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying that there’s a “process” in place with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) that coordinates with local authorities when migrants are transported.

Republican governors are using migrants as 'political pawns,' White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, when asked about a decision by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to fly migrants to Martha's Vineyard https://t.co/WUvBMoWhzJ pic.twitter.com/ATCnHrLAhK

— Reuters (@Reuters) September 15, 2022

That’s a lie.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been saying that his state hadn’t been notified of the numerous late-night/early-morning flights sent by the Department of Homeland Security, but the media just sort of ignored that. Now, a mayor in a blue state is saying the same thing.

An unexpected busload of migrant teens — mostly girls from Honduras, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua — arrived in upstate New York and caused a bit of a hullaballoo.

Mid-Hudson News reports:

Roughly 25 teens under the age of 17, mostly girls, boarded a chartered bus at the airport. It was stopped by local and State Police in the village after another pilot reported seeing suspicious activity at the airport.

Sources told Mid-Hudson News on Friday night that Homeland Security was involved with the flights, but a federal official with that agency denied that.

On Saturday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued an e-mailed statement to Mid-Hudson News.

“Children under the age of 18 who arrive at the southwest border without a parent or legal guardian are placed in the care of vetted sponsors by the Office of Refugee Resettlement while they await their immigration proceedings. This is done in close coordination with each vetted sponsor who is agreeing to care for the child and is mandated by long-standing legal requirements that have existed under multiple administrations to provide safe, appropriate care to unaccompanied children during the time they are in our care,” a government agency official said.

The teens only came on the radar of local officials after someone at the airport reported “suspicious” activity after the minors were seen getting off a plane and into a waiting bus and van. Authorities were called because the person who spotted the teen suspected that there was human trafficking going on.

Montgomery Village Mayor Steve Brescia wasn’t too pleased saying that the transportation “seemed clandestine.”

There were actually two flights one on Sept. 16 and another on Sept. 30, and, according to flight logs, both came from El Paso and were registered to the same company, Freight Runners Express.

Montgomery County’s Deputy Police Chief Paul Arteta says that the flights were coordinated by Biden’s Office of Refugee Resettlement which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services.

The NY Post reports that the adult chaperones for the minors “had been contracted by MVM —- a controversial Virginia-based private security firm that works for the US government.”

At least two migrant flights have touched down at Orange County Airport in Montgomery from El Paso, Texas in recent weeks, according to officials.

The latest flight, which landed last Friday night, was carrying 25 minors ranging between 13 and 18 years of age, who were quickly shipped off to 12 locations, including children’s homes and shelters, scattered across the tri state and New York City suburban areas…

…“They were transported out of the county once they got here,” Montgomery Village Mayor Steve Brescia told The Post Tuesday.

“We were never informed about any flights coming into the airport. It’s just disturbing we weren’t informed of any of this,” he continued. “We’re worried about the safety of the passengers who didn’t know where they were going.”
Source: New York Post

Mayor Brescia was on Fox News First on Friday discussing the matter:

Chief Arteta says that the adults were rather tight-lipped when police intercepted the bus after it left the airport to question those on board.

“Our initial call stated the witness thought he heard one of the children say they were here against their will, so that was our main concern — taking care of the children and finding out where they came from,” Arteta said.

He said the adults had a file on them that contained the flight plan and paperwork on each child, including their names, birth date, country of origin and where they were headed.

The file showed the minors were being shipped off to a dozen different shelters, children’s homes and “vetted sponsors” across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

As they were being questioned, Arteta said the contractors were initially hesitant to offer up any information on what they were doing or who had instructed them to do it.

“They were very, very reluctant to say anything to us,” Arteta said, adding that none of them had “any federal ID.”

“Once we got in contact with some of the federal agencies we got a bit more information and they opened up. We found out ORR was the main agency handling this,” he continued.

“Once we got in touch with ORR, they explained that’s not the way it should go down and if they bump into law enforcement, they should explain what they’re doing.”
Source: New York Post

Chief Arteta says, “Taking [the teens] 2,000 or 3,000 miles further away from where they originated is just terrible. They knew they were going to be helped in some way but they had absolutely no clue what was going on.”

It is terrible.

Perhaps these flights by the Biden administration that haven’t been coordinated with local officials will spark another letter from the Governor of California to the Department of Justice about opening up a kidnapping investigation against the contrators, HHS, ORR, and the Biden administration as a whole.