In a strongly worded letter dated Monday, dozens of Republican representatives demanded answers from Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg about a plan to use American airports as temporary housing for illegal immigrants. U.S. airports such as O’Hare in Chicago have, reportedly, already been used to house hundreds of immigrants here illegally as cities struggle to handle the influx of “asylum seekers.”
According to the letter, the Biden administration is proposing to house up to 60,000 illegal immigrants at four airports and various other facilities. The House GOP members are concerned that housing so many unvetted foreigners at sensitive facilities like airports represents an unnecessary security risk, especially at a time when global tensions are high in the midst of the situation in Gaza and the war in Ukraine.
Among the signatories were House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.), House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), and Louisiana Republican Garret Graves, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Aviation. All told, 70 members signed the letter.
“We are deeply disturbed by reports that the Federal Government is allowing for and encouraging the use of our Nation’s airport infrastructure as temporary shelters for illegal immigrants,” read the letter. “We adamantly oppose these ill-conceived plans that blatantly ignore the true crisis at hand and would inappropriately utilize America’s infrastructure.”
The signatories accused the administration of “abject failure” in their efforts to regulate immigration across America’s southern border and claimed that the disaster would only be made worse by utilizing airports for such a “nonaeronautical purpose.”
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed housing 60,000 migrants at four public airports and various other facilities in New York and New Jersey,” the letter pointed out. “These airports and their communities rightfully fear being transformed into larger versions of Chicago O’Hare International Airport, which has reportedly converted portions of its terminal into a shelter for hundreds of migrants.”
The GOP House members took the opportunity to remind Buttigieg of his responsibility as secretary of transportation.
“Airports are generally required to request permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before using aeronautical land and facilities for nonaeronautical purposes, like the housing of migrants, on an interim basis,” the letter stated. “It is your responsibility to direct the FAA to reject any attempt by a Federal, state, or local agency to use airport facilities for such a nonaeronautical and incompatible purpose as housing migrants.”
The letter demanded answers from Buttigieg on three specific questions:
- How many and which airports regulated by the FAA currently host temporary or permanent shelters for illegal immigrants or other persons?
- Has the FAA received or granted any request from an airport or a local, state, or Federal agency between January 20, 2021, and today to temporarily use aeronautical facilities for purposes of hosting a migrant shelter? If so, which?
- To what extent has DHS consulted with the FAA about the appropriateness of proposing to house migrants at airports? If DHS has consulted with the FAA, what has been the FAA’s response?
Stefanik later took to X to blast Biden and far-left Democrats of “incentivizing illegal immigration.”
“Our nation’s infrastructure was built for commerce, not for illegal migrant housing. Joe Biden and Extreme Democrats need to stop incentivizing illegal immigration,” she posted.
The New York Republican also recently blasted the Biden administration’s plan to use an airport in her district as temporary migrant housing.
“I proudly stand with the bipartisan coalition of local elected officials and the hardworking residents of St. Lawrence County who oppose using Massena International Airport as a site to house illegal immigrants,” Stefanik said in an August statement. “Upstate New York and the North Country is not a ‘Sanctuary City.’ We should not have to bear the cost of Joe Biden, Kathy Hochul, and Eric Adams’ Far Left open border policies and the havoc they are causing.”
The Biden administration’s plan to house potentially dangerous illegal immigrants at airports is not the only issue on the secretary of transportation’s plate. Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability are also hounding Buttigieg about his alleged incompetence on major transportation disruptions, most notably the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in February.
To learn more about America’s immigration invasion — and what can be done about it — click here.
