A series of late night flights that were captured on video and intended to transport migrant children to the state of Tennessee have raised eyebrows with high-profile lawmakers in the area.
A total of four planes were seen landing on Friday, Saturday, and Wednesday at Chattanooga’s Wilson Air Center under cover of darkness, according to WRCB. Children in their early teens offloaded the aircraft with matching bags before packing into buses owned by Coast to Coast Tours as part of a contract with the Department of Defense, an employee told the outlet.
Two of the buses, which reportedly hold 30 to 50 minors, were sent to Miami and Dallas, while at least 10 minors were brought to a dormitory in Highland Park, Tennessee. A spokesperson for the Department of Defense said the Department of Health and Human Services was likely behind the flights.
“From what I can tell, these were flights facilitated by HHS,” Lt. Col. Chris Mitchell told the local outlet. “The only support DoD is providing with respect to the unaccompanied minors is land and facilities for HHS to temporarily house them.”
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THURSDAY MORNING #FASTCAST Migrant children are being flown into Chattanooga at night and bused to cities across the southeast. pic.twitter.com/OLaZnjgIao
— WRCB-TV (@WRCB) May 20, 2021
Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, slammed President Joe Biden on Wednesday for conducting a secret “mass migration” operation.
“Our office has received no information from the Biden Administration informing us of a mass transportation of migrants to Tennessee,” she said in a statement. “It is absolutely unacceptable if the Biden Administration is facilitating a mass migration without any input or oversight from Tennesseans and the affected communities.”
“Vice President Kamala Harris, who is allegedly in charge of the border crisis, has gone almost 60 days without a news conference and has failed to even visit the border. This crisis is rapidly growing out of hand and the Biden Administration cannot continue to ignore it,” she later told the Washington Examiner.
The reports spurred Blackburn and Tennessee lawmakers, Sen. Bill Hagerty and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, to pen a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, demanding the government leaders provide clarity on why the flights are taking place.
“We write to seek information on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) management of unaccompanied alien children (UAC) in federal custody and the facilities used to house them. We are particularly concerned about recent reports regarding the use of Chattanooga, Tennessee, as a central location for resettling UACs in the United States,” the document read.
“There are media reports that, within the last week, at least four planes carrying UACs landed at Wilson Air Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, before swiftly boarding the children on to buses and transporting them to multiple cities across the southeastern United States for apparent resettlement, with zero transparency regarding what was happening,” the lawmakers continued.
The incident has also drawn the attention of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who claimed the Biden administration has “cut off transparency.”
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“Weeks ago, we declined the Biden Administration’s request to house unaccompanied minors & called on the administration to secure the border & stop scattering children across the country,” he wrote in a Thursday tweet. “When we demanded answers, they cut off transparency & emboldened one of the worst human trafficking crises we’ve seen at our border in the last 20 years. I commend @SenatorHagerty & @MarshaBlackburn for calling this out — Tennesseans deserve to know who is coming into our state.”
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
