Looks Like Payback: DHS Targets Texas, Florida with Secret Migrant Flights

AP Photo/Eric Gay

The Biden administration is secretly using migrant flights to dump illegal aliens into the United States. It turns out that most of them are being flown into Florida and Texas. 

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Hmm. Is it a coincidence that two red states that are being vigilant in securing their borders are receiving 90% of the migrant flights? I don't think so. 

The Center for Immigration Studies analyzed available public information on U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) website. It's difficult to know the full picture since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) refuses to publicly identify the dozens of international airports it has approved for direct flights from abroad for some inadmissible aliens.

At least 386,000 migrants, as of February, have been allowed to fly into the U.S. airports as part of President Biden's admissions program launched in October 2022. The rationale for the program is to reduce the number of illegal border crossings. They are flown in and then released on parole. 

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analysis of available public information shows the airports that might account for being used for landings from abroad, though not necessarily the final destinations. Early evidence shows that a majority of the flights carrying inadmissible aliens likely land at international airports in Florida. 

Florida is the top landing and U.S. customs processing zone for the direct-flights parole-and-release program. The total through February was nearly 326,000 aliens since the program began. Other regions being used in the program are Houston, New York, northern and southern California, and Washington, D.C. Florida is the heaviest hit. 

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Begun in October 2022 for Venezuelans and expanded in January 2023 to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Colombians, the program approves flight travel authorizations for aspiring illegal border-crossers still in other countries to instead arrange commercial airline passage for themselves over the southern border and then receive temporary but easily renewable “humanitarian parole” from CBP officers at the airport. One incentive to dissuade beneficiaries from illegal border crossings is that the parole program comes with eligibility for renewable work permits.

Also during 2023, the direct-flights parole program declared that Guatemalans, El Salvadorans, Hondurans, and Ecuadorians also would be eligible, for a total of nine nationalities. The Central Americans and Ecuadorians show up in comparatively small numbers for now, having been added in the latter months of 2023, but could increase over time.

The program allows potential illegal border crossers from Latin American countries to buy an airline ticket to fly directly to the city of their choice. That is where they are processed and released. Investigator Todd Bensman reported, “One incentive to dissuade beneficiaries from illegal border crossings is that the parole program comes with eligibility for renewable work permits.”

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Bensman and CIS are battling the Biden administration for more transparency. Remember when Joe Biden said his administration would be the most transparent ever? That was just another of his lies. Bensman and CIS argue that communities have a right to know who is coming into them. 

“Public knowledge of where these flights deliver migrants should matter to local, state, and national leaders in cities struggling with migrant influxes, who could use the information to financially plan for their care or petition the federal government to stop the flights," he said. "The information may also hold implications for litigation by Texas, Florida, and other states that have sued to stop the parole programs on grounds that the administration's illegal abuse of the narrow statutory parole authority has directly harmed them."

The focus on Florida and to a lesser extent, Texas, sure looks like payback. Both states have been vocal critics of Biden's dereliction of duty at the southern border. Governors DeSantis and Abbott fly and bus illegal aliens to sanctuary cities and states to bring attention to the Biden border crisis. Governor DeSantis is securing the Florida coast as Haiti spirals out of control and Haitians flee. DeSantis has brought home over a hundred Americans who became trapped in Haiti when the violent gangs overtook the country. The Biden administration, showing its usual incompetence, is leaving Americans stranded with no way out. The Biden doctrine includes leaving Americans behind across the world. 

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The Biden administration refuses to cooperate with Florida and Texas. It is a national security issue and a public safety issue. Now it looks like he is retaliating. If not, why would Texas be chosen when it is already overwhelmed with illegal aliens? Why not fly them into a state that is a sanctuary state? Governor DeSantis has turned Florida into a deep red state. It looks like he is being punished for his success. Joe Biden doesn't want to do his job but he doesn't want governors to do the job of DHS, either.


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