Congressman Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03), joining other members of the House Appropriations Committee, sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The group demanded more information on reports that DHS has moved unaccompanied minors throughout the country – often, without permission from local leaders.
For example, multiple airplanes carrying unaccompanied migrant children from the southern border landed late at night on multiple days at Chattanooga’s Wilson Air Center.
Upon arriving in Chattanooga, dozens of migrant children boarded multiple buses to be transported to various locations.
Furthermore, the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (TDS) suspended the license of an unaccompanied migrant minor housing facility, La Casa de Sydney. The suspension followed claims of sexual abuse.
“Since taking office last year, President Biden and congressional Democrats have gone out of their way to undermine security at the southern border and import untold thousands of migrants into our country and my home state of Tennessee. There’s no doubt that the illegal aliens released into the U.S. will disappear into communities nationwide and create stress on our economy, local law enforcement agencies, and drain taxpayer-funded services – often at the disadvantage of minority-Americans. Our focus must be on restoring border security and ensuring all public services only go to legal Americans,” Fleischmann said in a statement.
In the letter, the group expressed concerns over the use of taxpayer funds in the process:
“More galling still, further reports indicate that taxpayer money is being used to secretively ferry these individuals from detention facilities near the border to points farther into the interior of the United States, presumably for release. In addition to our concerns surrounding your department’s policies with respect to detention of illegal border crossers, it is our firm belief that taxpayer resources should not be used to transport these individuals to secondary destinations within the interior, especially without proper notification to m–embers of Congress and local law-enforcement officials as well as full transparency for the general public.”
— — —
Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
