The Biden administration is accused of pressuring U.S. airports to accommodate migrants, even though officials warned that doing so could jeopardize safety and put travelers at risk. A 47‑page Senate Commerce Committee report titled “Flight Risk” claims that the White House instructed the Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to locate airport sites for shelters or processing centers for asylum seekers.
According to the document, the administration asked DOT and FAA to “inventory available facilities” at both federal‑owned and local airports and to “divert federal resources” to support incoming migrants. Internal emails referenced in the report reveal concern among staff. On October 6, 2023, an FAA official wrote to Massport: “We have received a request from the WH to determine if there are available facilities on airport or surrounding areas… This is an immediate ask so please prioritize this effort.” A DOT employee replied sharply: “Yikes, this is definitely Fox News fodder in the making.”
The investigation found that at least eleven major airports—including Boston’s Logan, Chicago’s O’Hare, and New York’s JFK—were asked or even pressured to house migrants inside terminals, hangars, or auxiliary buildings. FAA officials acknowledged that such use typically requires federal approval under grant‑assurance rules, yet they “ignored them most of the time when airports used their facilities to house aliens,” according to the report.
Massport’s warning that it “is not designed or resourced to manage the intake of migrant populations… this would create a host of unintended safety and security consequences” was apparently not heeded. Logan Airport reportedly sheltered up to 352 migrants overnight in Terminal E and spent $779,000 on security, cleaning, and transportation. At O’Hare, as many as 900 migrants were sheltered in a shuttle terminal, and between April 2023 and February 2024, police logged 329 service calls and 26 arrests, including theft, disorderly conduct, and a death probe. Chicago officials admitted that “asylum seekers [are] not restricted to the staging area.”
A 2024 security breach at JFK involved Kleber Loor‑Ponce, described by investigators as “an alien from Ecuador who ran past a security post into ‘the secure area at [JFK],’ toward two runways.” He was apprehended with a box cutter and a pair of scissors in hand.
Beyond the airports, DOT and its sub‑agencies were allegedly directed to assist with other migrant‑support operations. The FMCSA was told to help produce a “Know Your Rights” pamphlet for bus passengers and coordinate with states tracking bus companies transporting migrants. The FTA was “encouraged to remind local transit agencies that federal grants could be used to move migrants.”
The committee concluded that these directives represented “a dangerous diversion” of federal transportation resources. It stated that the Biden‑Harris administration “made airports and aviation less secure” by allowing and encouraging migrants to shelter at U.S. airports, permitting inadequately vetted individuals to travel into and throughout the country, and allocating essential federal marshals to the border instead.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Sen. Ted Cruz (R‑Tx), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, said: “This report exposes how the Biden Department of Transportation conspired with local leaders in New York, Boston, and Chicago to house migrants in airport facilities at taxpayer expense.” He added, “Their decisions – to transport illegal aliens through airports without identity checks, even those with felonies – show in new detail how Biden’s open‑border policy coopted government agencies to put American citizens at risk.”
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