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The Biden administration is said to have exerted pressure US airports according to an explosive Senate report, despite warnings that this could compromise security and endanger travelers.
The 47-page “Flight Risk” document released by the Senate Commerce Committee alleges that the White House directed the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to find airport facilities for housing or migrant processing centers.
According to the report, the administration directed DOT and FAA to “conduct an inventory of available facilities” at both federally owned and local airports and “redirect federal resources” to support migrant arrivals.
Travelers at O’Hare International Airport (ORD) in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on Monday, December 23, 2024. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) expects 40 million passengers to be screened this holiday season. Photographer: Vincent Alban/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Internal emails cited in the report show employees’ concerns. On October 6, 2023, an FAA official wrote to Massport:
“We have received a request from the WH to determine whether there are available facilities at the airport or surrounding areas… This is an immediate request so please prioritize this action.”
Another DOT employee responded candidly: “Yikes, that’s definitely Fox News fodder in the making.”
The committee found that at least 11 airports, including Boston LoganChicago O’Hare and New York’s JFK have been asked or even pressured to house migrants in terminals, hangars or outbuildings.
A sign marks the entrance to the FAA headquarters in Washington DC on October 7, 2024. (J David Ake/Getty Images)
FAA officials acknowledged that such use would normally require federal approval under grant rules, according to the report.
Instead, they “mostly ignored them when airports used their facilities to accommodate foreigners,” the report said.
Massport, which operates Boston Logan, warned its counterparts: “We are not designed or equipped to handle the reception of migrants… doing so would result in a number of unintended security consequences.”
Despite that warning, Logan housed up to 352 migrants overnight in Terminal E and spent $779,000 on security, cleaning and transportation, according to the report.
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International terminal, train and control tower at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York (Skyhobo via Getty Images)
At Chicago’s O’Hare AirportUp to 900 migrants were accommodated in a shuttle terminal.
According to the report, between April 2023 and February 2024, police logged 329 calls for service and 26 arrests, including thefts, disorderly conduct and a death investigation.
Chicago officials admitted that “asylum seekers” [we]are not limited to the staging area.”
The report also highlights a year 2024 Security breach at JFK airport involving Kleber Loor-Ponce, who was described as “a foreigner from Ecuador.” [who] ran past a security guard into the security area [JFK]’Towards two runways.’
When he was arrested, “security found him, arrested him and found a box cutter and a pair of scissors on him.”
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This breakdown shows migrants at Boston Logan International Airport and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. (Getty)
Beyond the airports, the DOT and its subagencies have reportedly been directed to assist with other efforts to assist migrants.
According to the report, FMCSA was directed to help produce a “Know Your Rights” pamphlet for bus passengers and to coordinate with states in prosecuting bus companies that transport migrants.
The free trade agreement was “encouraged to remind local transit agencies that federal grants could be used to transport migrants.”
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attend Donald Trumpi’s inauguration ceremony in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on January 20, 2025 (Saul Loeb – Pool/Getty Images)
The committee concluded that these guidelines represented “a dangerous distraction.” Federal Transportation Resources.
“The Biden-Harris administration has made airports and aviation less safe,” the report says, “by allowing and encouraging aliens to seek refuge at U.S. airports, by allowing improperly screened aliens to fly into and through the United States, and by redirecting needed federal air marshals to the border,” it said.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said: “This report reveals how the Biden Department of Transportation worked with local leaders in New York, Boston and Chicago to house migrants in airport facilities at taxpayer expense.”
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“Their decisions — to transport illegal aliens through airports without identity checks, even if they have committed crimes — show in new detail how Biden’s open borders policy used government agencies to endanger American citizens,” Cruz added.