As the Biden administration secretly shuttles illegal immigrants around the country, sheriffs are demanding federal officials tell them who is coming to their communities.
For months, officials from New York state to Florida have expressed outrage over late-night flights that bring illegal immigrants from the southern border into various communities.
Last year, for example, the office of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said more than 70 flights brought illegal immigrants from the border to Jacksonville, according to the Washington Examiner.
Last week, law enforcement officials gathered for the National Sheriffs’ Association meeting in Washington said they, too, have been victims of the Biden administration’s blackout on information sharing, according to a report in The Washington Times.
“You’re sending them to any county in this country; they need to notify the sheriff of that county who’s arriving,” said Sheriff Thomas Hodgson of Bristol County, Massachusetts.
“We have a right to know that. If they’re shipping terrorists into our neighborhood, we have a right to know that. Drug dealers, smugglers — we have a right to know that,” he continued.
Sheriffs who oversee small communities want to know when new populations are arriving that can change the dynamics of a small town.
“It would give us an opportunity to know who’s coming, and it would also give us the opportunity to not necessarily track, but if we haven’t seen this person, we should then be able to notify the people [who] are sending that data out,” said Sheriff Troy Wellman of Moody County, South Dakota, according to Fox News.
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The Times report said members of the National Sheriffs’ Association’s border security committee summed up in one word the Biden administration’s response to their concerns: “crickets.”
“Transparency is one thing that’s lacking,” said Sam S. Page, sheriff in Rockingham County, North Carolina, Fox reported. “Why can’t we get the same respect and communications with our federal partners?”
The dead-of-the-night flights are no more popular with law enforcement officials at the border, according to Fox News.
Jackson County, Texas, Sheriff A.J. Louderback labeled the flights “government-sanctioned human trafficking.”
Cochise County, Arizona, Sheriff Mark Dannels said the administration is working against community safety with its efforts to transplant illegal immigrants across America, regardless of their criminal backgrounds.
He said the flights are part of “a political ideology by this administration that erodes the trust of Americans. This ‘willful’ neglect leaves our border communities and country vulnerable and exposed to criminal exploitation by violent criminal cartels.”
“In my 37 years of law enforcement service, I have never experienced this form of non-collective messaging and defiance regarding our rule of law by our federal leaders and members of U.S. Congress who share the same oath of office to protect Americans and this great nation! I stand united with my fellow Sheriffs who uphold their oath of office in enforcing the rule of law and protecting our communities.”
In January, House Republicans from New York state called for the Biden administration to stop the surreptitious flights into New York and give local officials the facts about what the administration has been up to, according to the New York Post.
“We urge you to immediately cease any activities of transporting illegal immigrants by plane, or any other method, from the Southern Border to New York State,” read the letter, signed by Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik and other New York GOP members of Congress.
“We demand you provide Congress and all New Yorkers with the current location and status of each illegal immigrant you have transferred to our state. The New Yorkers we represent are entitled to know how your failure to address the crisis at our Southern Border continues to impact their communities and day-to-day lives.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
