A report released by the Senate Commerce Committee alleged that the Biden administration pressured a number of airports to shelter illegal migrants despite putting travelers at risk.
The committee found that at least 11 airports — including Boston Logan, Chicago O'Hare, and New York's JFK — were asked, or in some cases pressured, to house migrants in terminals, hangars, or other on-site buildings.
The 47-page report, titled "Flight Risk," said the Biden White House pressured multiple transportation agencies — including the DOT, FAA, FMCSA, and FTA — to identify airport properties that could be converted into migrant shelters or processing hubs.
The report says the administration ordered the DOT and FAA to "inventory available facilities" at both federal and local airports and to "divert federal resources" to help manage incoming migrants.
Internal emails cited in the report show growing alarm inside the federal agencies involved.
On Oct. 6, 2023, an FAA official emailed Massport — the authority that operates Boston Logan — saying, "We have received a request from the WH to determine if there are available facilities on airport or surrounding areas. … This is an immediate ask so please prioritize this effort."
Despite knowing such use would typically require federal approval under long-standing grant-assurance rules, FAA officials "ignored them most of the time when airports used their facilities to house aliens," the report claims.
Massport pushed back, warning federal officials that Logan was "not designed or resourced to manage the intake of migrant populations" and that doing so "would create a host of unintended safety and security consequences."
Even so, the report says Logan ultimately hosted as many as 352 migrants overnight in Terminal E, spending nearly $780,000 on added security, cleaning, and transportation.
At Chicago O'Hare, the situation was even larger.
According to the committee, up to 900 migrants were sheltered inside a shuttle terminal.
From April 2023 through February 2024, police logged 329 service calls and 26 arrests, including cases of theft, disorderly conduct, and even a death investigation.
Chicago authorities admitted that "asylum seekers [we]re not restricted to the staging area."
The Senate panel concludes this amounted to a sweeping — and dangerous — shift of federal transportation resources away from their intended purpose.
"The Biden-Harris administration made airports and aviation less secure," the report stated, "by allowing and encouraging aliens to shelter at U.S. airports, by allowing improperly vetted aliens to fly into and throughout the United States, and by diverting needed federal air marshals to the border."
Newsmax Wires contributed to this report.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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