The US has sent over 70 flights of migrants from the Mexican border to Jacksonville, Florida since the summer — but the Biden administration has not disclosed any information about the clandestine transports, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office claimed.
The alleged flights — which landed in overnight hours — come as officials struggle to deal with overcrowding at border facilities, according to The Washington Examiner.
“Over 70 air charter flights [on] jetliner airliners coming from the southwest border have landed at Jacksonville International Airport,” Larry Keefe, the Republican governor’s public safety czar, told the outlet.
“On average, there’s 36 passengers on each of these flights. And that has been going on over the course of the summer through September.”
Neither the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, nor Department of Health and Human Services would disclose any information to Florida officials regarding the flights, Keefe told the paper.
“We’re in a sad situation of trying to run an investigation. Who is facilitating this travel? How are they getting here? Who are the support people? Who are the sponsors?” Keefe reportedly asked, adding that his office was tipped off to the flights by local police.
Florida officials were aware that Jacksonville, which is along Interstate 95, was being used as a staging area for the migrants, who were taken by bus to locations up and down the coast, the report said.
“We don’t know definitively or specifically as to why Jacksonville is the chosen place,” Keefe said, according to the outlet. “[We’re] having to watch and observe — in effect, spy on the government to see what it is that they’re doing in the middle of the night out of these airport facilities.”
The disclosure comes on the heels of an exclusive Post report that found similar flights full of young migrants arriving in Westchester County Airport under the cover of night.
The White House said last month that the flights to suburban New York only carried children and teens.
“It is our legal responsibility to safely care for unaccompanied children until they can be swiftly unified with a parent or a vetted sponsor,” the US Department of Health and Human Services told The Post in response to the exposé.
The concern from the Florida statehouse came after a 24-year-old undocumented immigrant from Honduras, who posed as a 17-year-old and gave officials a fake name, allegedly killed the Jacksonville man who took him in and gave him a job last month.
The victim’s daughter said she believed the murder suspect arrived on one of the secret flights.