The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), alleged in a report Monday that former President Joe Biden’s administration instructed airports to house illegal immigrants.
The 47-page report, titled “Flight Risk,” accuses the Biden White House of having directed the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the Federal Transit Administration officials in New York, Chicago, and Boston to find airport facilities that could be used as shelters or processing centers for immigrants.
The Washington Examiner contacted the FAA, White House, DOT, and Cruz’s office for comment.
“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,” Cruz stated. “Their decisions – to transport illegal aliens through airports without identity checks, even those with felonies — shows in new detail how Biden’s open border policy coopted government agencies to put American citizens at risk.”
The report alleged that at least 11 airports, including the Boston Logan International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, were “pressured” to house migrants inside hangars, auxiliary buildings, and even terminals.
The Biden administration also instructed the DOT and FAA to “divert federal resources” intended for other passengers to support migrant arrivals to airports, according to internal emails reviewed by the committee.
FAA officials acknowledged that executing the orders would mean disregarding the agency’s grant-assurance rules, which were put in place to prevent airports from diverting already-appropriated resources.
“We have received a request from the WH to determine if there are available facilities on airport or surrounding areas,” an FAA official wrote to the Massachusetts Port Authority. “[T]his is an immediate ask so please prioritize this effort.”
The report also mentioned that the port authority, which oversees Boston’s largest airport, had warned federal authorities that it did not have the resources to support the influx of illegal immigrants.
“We are not designed, or resourced, to manage the intake of migrant populations … this would create a host of unintended safety and security consequences,” an FAA official wrote in an email obtained by the Senate committee. Despite the port authorities’ message to Biden administration officials, the report said that Logan Airport eventually housed up to 352 migrants overnight in 2023, costing around $779,000.
Other airports highlighted in the report, such as Chicago’s O’Hare, housed as many as 900 migrants in one of its shuttle terminals. From August 2022 to November 2023, Chicago witnessed 17,000 new arrivals of illegal immigrants. As a whole, the country saw the release of 370,190 in 2023 alone.
The report stated that Chicago police recorded 329 service calls and 26 arrests from the immigrants being housed at the airport, which included thefts, disorderly conduct, and a death investigation between April 2023 and February 2024.
Chicago officials acknowledged that “asylum seekers [we]re not restricted to the staging area.”
The report also highlighted a security breach at the JFK Airport in 2024, involving Kleber Loor-Ponce of Ecuador, “[who] ran past a security post into ‘the secure area at [JFK],’ toward two runways.”
Once in custody, security reported Loor-Ponce had a box cutter and a pair of scissors in his possession.
FAA WARNS AIRLINES FLYING TO VENEZUELA OF ‘POTENTIAL RISK’ AS TRUMP CONSIDERS STRIKES AGAINST MADURO
Cruz launched the investigation into the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security for its “ineffective management of airport security and vetting of illegal aliens” in September 2024.
“The country is under an increased threat environment due, in part, to the Biden-Harris administration’s open border policies,” Cruz wrote in his letter to then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
