What’s The Deal with Biden’s ‘Ghost Flights’ of Illegal Aliens?

February 7, 2022

By William Davis

Is the Biden administration quietly importing large numbers of illegal aliens through midnight flights?

That would be a reasonable conclusion based on recent reports about the Biden administration’s resettlement process. The White House is being accused of chartering flights for hundreds of “mostly minor-age” illegal aliens to Pennsylvania, according to a report.

The “ghost flights” allegedly took place over the course of three weeks during the month of September, and concluded shortly after the Christmas holiday. Flight tracking websites showed at least one flight from El Paso, Texas to Scranton, Pennsylvania on December 17. That flight was chartered by iAero Airways, which contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Jim Gallagher, president of Aviation Technologies Inc., the Scranton airport’s fixed-base operator, claimed that he observed mostly young, non-English speaking people exiting planes and leaving on busses at the Scranton airport.

The allegations garnered the attention of two of Pennsylvania’s top Republicans, Rep. Dan Meuser and former Rep. Lou Barletta, a candidate in the state’s upcoming gubernatorial election. Both Meuser and Barletta wrote letters to ICE Director Tae Johnson and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ripping the administration’s handling of the border crisis, and demanding answers over the flights.

“This mismanagement is now directly impacting the people I represent, and I expect you will provide me the answers I need to address my constituents’ concerns,” Meuser wrote.

“Now we see evidence of more flights on Christmas night, and people want to know if illegal immigrants are being transported to our community, whether they’ve undergone background checks and health screenings, and why no one was notified that this was happening,” Barletta wrote.

Barletta later shared photos of what he claimed showed a flight full of illegal aliens at Lehigh Valley Airport in Allentown, Pennsylvania, while suggesting that the Biden administration shifted the flights from Scranton to Allentown following the initial backlash. Meuser has also accused the Biden administration of using funds intended to fight the COVID-19 pandemic to resettle illegal aliens into the U.S.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf denied that migrants were being resettled into his state. Wolf, a Democrat, claims that the migrants were simply passing through the state en route to their final destination, and accused Republicans of engaging in a “political PR stunt.” However, this is not the first time the Biden administration has been accused of resettling illegal aliens into the U.S. through secretive, midnight flights.

Just last month, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused the Biden administration of effectively running a “human smuggling operation” by sending planes full of illegal aliens into his state. DeSantis accused the administration of having sent 70 such flights to the state over a six-month period. DeSantis has earmarked $8 million in his proposed budget to ship illegal aliens coming into his state to Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware.

The Biden administration has not addressed any of the accusations emanating from elected officials in Florida and Pennsylvania, likely because their allies in the corporate media have not bothered to cover the accusations. However, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki previously acknowledged that the administration was flying planes full of illegal aliens to New York under cover of darkness. It seems likely, based on the White House’s pattern of behavior, that the accounts from officials in Florida and Pennsylvania are true.

The Biden administration has an established pattern of secrecy when it comes to its immigration policies, and it’s not just about the ghost flights. This month, it was reported that the Biden administration had been hiding the arrest records and terrorist ties of new arrivals. The White House has also withheld an annual report on the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations. It was the first time in more than a decade that ICE failed to release an annual report, ending an era of bipartisan transparency on this subject.

Given Biden’s horrific approval ratings, it’s no surprise that his administration is dispersing illegal aliens throughout the U.S. in secret. But, we should all be grateful to local and state officials who work to bring the consequences of the administration’s anti-borders agenda into the light.

William J. Davis is a communications associate for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.  

Also published at: William Davis, What’s The Deal with Biden’s ‘Ghost Flights’ of Illegal Aliens?, American Thinker, February 3, 2022.