Planeloads of Illegal Immigrant Minors Relocated Around U.S. in Middle of the Night

In an apparent effort to avoid public scrutiny, the Biden administration is transporting planeloads of illegal immigrant minors in the middle of the night then busing them to cities in the southeast. Even members of Congress representing the impacted districts are being kept in the dark about the covert operations and the Department of Defense (DOD) is contracting big tour buses to move the migrants to nearby states once they land, presumably from the southern border region. The alarming details are featured in a well-sourced news report broadcast by a Tennessee media outlet this week. The segment—and accompanying article—features videos of planes arriving at a Chattanooga private jet terminal called Wilson Air Center. Adolescents who appear to be in their early teens are seen deboarding the planes carrying matching bags then boarding large tour busses parked on the runway.

One of the planes landed around 1:30 a.m. on a Friday, the news story says, and the other late Saturday night. A third plane arrived at the Chattanooga facility on a Friday afternoon and a fourth early Wednesday morning, according to flight records obtained by reporters. The illegal alien teens, officially coined Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) by the government, are seen boarding large buses owned by Coast-to-Coast Tours of East Point, Georgia. An employee of the company said the buses were dispatched to Chattanooga as part of a contract with the DOD. “The employee says this was the first time the company had been asked to pick up migrant children in Chattanooga,” the article states, adding that “in the past, the company’s drivers have traveled to Mobile, Alabama, and Atlanta to transport children.” The source confirms that two buses seen on the news video left Chattanooga for Miami, Florida and Dallas, Texas. Three to four chaperones accompanied the UAC because the bus company requires it when underaged passengers are on board.

Approximately 30 to 50 UAC are transported on each bus, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operation. Some get reunited with family members and others go to taxpayer-funded group homes. The source says in the news story that the operation began in Dallas but was recently moved to small airports to “avoid attention.” Wilson Air Center fits the bill. It is a Fixed-Base Operator (FBO), a private jet facility, with an executive terminal, 120,000 square feet of hangar space and a multitude of other amenities. The company provides corporate aviation support services in four cities, including Chattanooga. “At Wilson Air Center, hospitality is the rule, not the exception,” its website states. “No matter which location you visit, Charlotte, Memphis, Houston or Chattanooga, you can be sure you’ll receive world-class FBO and aviation services delivered with our award-winning attitude!” The company claims to be an industry leader for its unmatched approach to customer service and satisfaction.

Unfortunately, the American public cannot obtain details about the arrangement. The Tennessee media outlet was given the runaround and various members of Congress are quoted saying they have no information about the operations. A DOD spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Mitchell, says in the story that the flights were facilitated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “The only support DoD is providing with respect to the unaccompanied minors is land and facilities for HHS to temporarily house them,” Mitchell says in the piece. HHS never returned the news outlet’s call seeking information on the secret operations. Last month the agency confirmed a group of UAC were being housed at a former Tennessee Temple dormitory in Highland Park.

HHS is responsible for UAC and currently has a record 22,264 in its care, according to the latest government figures. The agency provides the illegal immigrant minors with an array of services, including classroom education, mental and medical healthcare, legal counsel, and a variety of recreational activities. The overwhelming majority of the migrants—72%—are not children but rather young adults or adolescents 15 to 17 years old, government records show. Most of the youths are from Guatemala and Honduras and 68% are male, which has tremendously boosted gang recruitment in this country. Federal authorities have for years confirmed that the nation’s most violent street gangs—including the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)—recruit new members at U.S. shelters housing UAC.