(New York Post) An upstate New York mayor ripped into President Biden and his team after dozens of migrants kids were secretly flown to his small town by the feds last week, telling The Post: “This seems clandestine.”
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.”
He added: “This seems clandestine.”
Minors were flown into New York and then sent across the tri-state area.NY Post illustration
Dozens of migrant kids touched down at Orange County Airport in Montgomery from El Paso, Texas on Friday.
Montgomery Village Mayor, Steve Brescia told The Post the whole ordeal seemed “clandestine.”kevin c downs
Last week’s flight was arranged by the Biden administration’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) — which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Montgomery County’s Deputy Police Chief Paul Arteta.
Meanwhile, a number of adults acting as chaperones for the minors had been contracted by MVM — a controversial Virginia-based private security firm that works for the US government, Arteta added.
The Biden administration has come under fire of late for orchestrating a slew of secret migrant flights — despite publicly shaming Republican governors, including Texas’ Greg Abbott and Florida’s Ron DeSantis, for shipping migrants to various Democratic-run cities.
It comes after an initial migrant flight touched down at Orange County Airport on Sept. 16, but it wasn’t immediately clear how many migrants were on board that aircraft.
Both the Sept. 16 and Sept. 30 flights came from El Paso and were registered to the same company, Freight Runners Express, according to flight logs.
Local officials and cops were only made aware of the flights when someone at the airport reported “suspicious” activity after the minors were spotted filing off the plane and getting into a waiting bus and van last Friday.
The minors were spotted filing off the plane and getting into a waiting bus and van last Friday.
Police quickly intercepted the bus as it left the airport to question the chaperones and migrant kids, who hailed from Honduras, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
“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.”
