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FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, on Friday introduced legislation to bar taxpayer money paying for migrant flights into the U.S. interior amid continued outrage about the practice from Republicans.
The Stop the Betrayal Act of 2022 would bar federal funds being used by the Department of Homeland Security, or other agencies, to transport illegal immigrants into the interior of the country.
It would still allow funding to be used for deportations and the enforcement of immigration law as well as the transport of unaccompanied children to Health and Human Services (HHS) facilities.
The bill comes in response to footage obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request by former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, which shows migrants being transported on charter flights at night from to Westchester, New York.
“It is infuriating that the Biden administration is flying illegal immigrants into the U.S. in the dead of night, on the taxpayers’ dime — they have zero regard for the safety of our communities,” Hinson said. “Instead of securing our border by enforcing the Remain in Mexico policy, giving border patrol agents the resources they need, and completing the wall — the administration is pursuing a ‘catch and release’ policy and secretly flying illegal immigrants into the country with no way to track to them.”
“I will be introducing legislation to prevent your paycheck from funding these secret flights transporting illegal immigrants into the U.S.,” she said.
The Biden administration has overseen a massive border crisis in its first year in office — something Republicans have blamed on the dramatic rollback of Trump-era polices, coupled with reduced interior enforcement and a push for mass amnesty. The Biden administration has instead blamed “root causes,” like poverty and corruption in Central America.
But with the ending of policies designed to end “catch-and-release,” it means that a larger number of migrants are being released into the U.S. and transported across the country.
The 51-minute footage of the August incident shows Westchester Police Sgt. Michael Hamborsky peppering federal contractors early in the morning with questions about the after-hours flights and why local police were not provided details.
“You’re on a secure facility here; we really don’t know anything and we’re in charge of security,” he told one of the contractors.
Another contractor told Hamborsky: “Listen, my thing is I like to comply, but technically we’re not supposed to show IDs or anything. Like I said, everything is supposed to be hush hush.”
Hamborsky asked one contractor why they were coming to suburban Westchester, which is about 35 miles outside of New York City.
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“You don’t want to be in somewhere the spotlight is,” the contractor replied. “You want to try and be as down low as possible. A lot of this is just down-low stuff that we don’t tell people because what we don’t want to do is attract attention. We don’t want the media. Like we don’t even know where we’re going when they tell us.”
Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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