Flights carrying illegal immigrants now landing in Pennsylvania: reports
By Emily Crane
Pennsylvania has become the latest location where flights filled with illegal immigrants are being flown under the cover of darkness, according to reports.
At least five flights carrying the illegal immigrants landed at airports in Scranton and Allentown late last month from Texas, local outlet WFMZ reported.
Former GOP Congressman Lou Barletta, who is running for Pennsylvania governor, claimed the flights were sent at night by the Biden administration.
A photo by Rep. Lou Barletta allegedly shows a nighttime flight of illegal immigrants arriving at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.
loubarletta.com
Barletta said one flight had landed at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown last Thursday. The others were directed to Scranton International Airport a week earlier.
Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright denied the flights were conducted in secret, saying they were authorized by the US Department of Health and Human Services and were carrying unaccompanied immigrant children.
He added that the children were sent to their parents, or approved sponsors, after landing in Scranton.
But Barletta said it was impossible to know whether everyone on board was underage.
The Lehigh Valley airport confirmed it had received charter flights from HHS — and that future flights were scheduled.
“Under grant assurances with the Federal Aviation Administration and as a federally obligated public use airport, the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority does not have the ability to discriminate against any aeronautical activity by refusing or denying aircraft from arriving or departing Lehigh Valley International Airport,” an airport spokesperson said in a statement.
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), whose district borders the two regions where the flights landed, is demanding answers from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Fox News reported.
“I am extremely concerned by recent reports that the federal government has flown illegal immigrants to the Wilkes Barre-Scranton International Airport,” he wrote in a letter.
“It is my understanding that a total of 130 immigrants, 118 minors and 12 adults, arrived aboard an iAero charter flight on Friday, December 17 and were subsequently transported on buses from a private hangar.”
The Biden administration has already allowed planeloads of illegal immigrants to be flown into New York and Florida in recent months.
More than a dozen charter flights carrying underage immigrants landed in Westchester in August alone, The Post learned.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration secretly sent over 70 flights to Jacksonville, Florida, over the summer, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office claimed.
