Biden admin flying migrants from overwhelmed California to Texas after Gov. Abbott’s crackdown deterred crossings — at $80K per flight
The Biden administration has been flying migrants from California, which is being overrun, to Texas — where Gov. Greg Abbott’s tough border control measures have deterred illegal crossings into the state, The Post can reveal.
For the last month, pricey Border Patrol charter flights on commercial-sized planes have been hauling border crossers from San Diego to Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, sources told The Post.
Sources say the flights, which have been operating every week, cost an estimated $80,000 and are known for being “extremely expensive.”
Photos also show dozens of migrants shackled by the ankles boarding the planes, which are operated by a contractor, in San Diego.
Migrant holding facilities in the San Diego region have been inundated and are at 150% capacity, according to internal federal data recently obtained by The Post — even after the Biden administration announced a new “crackdown” in June enabling the federal government to expedite the removal of asylum seekers who don’t have a credible claim of fear.
Border facilities in San Diego don’t have the operational capacity to deal with the numbers of migrants entering the region, and a number of loopholes in the Biden administration’s new border policies have made it tougher to deport certain people crossing the border.
Unaccompanied children, people with medical issues and migrants from so-called “hard to remove” countries (such as those which do not permit charter repatriation flights) can stay in the US, according to Border Patrol documents previously reported by The Post.
According to internal federal data, Border Patrol has released roughly 400 migrants into Texas’ Rio Grande Valley region, where the flights are landing, since the Biden administration’s asylum restrictions started on June 6.
In the Lone Star State, restrictions enacted by Abbott, including increased National Guard troops and barricades at the border, have been effective in limiting the number of migrant crossings.
In one glaring example this spring, after Texas troops moved in to secure Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, crossings dropped from 2,000 to 3,000 a day to around five, according to Texas’ Department of Public Safety (DPS).
Meanwhile, in April, San Diego became the number one area for illegal crossings for the first time in 20 years in April with 37,370 encounters, according to NewsNation.
A CBP official told The Post that some of the new migrant arrivals at the southern border eligible for the exceptions for removal will still be “issued” a future court date and released into the US if holding facilities cannot accommodate them.
“There might be some that we can’t return to Mexico, it’s going to take longer to return to their country of origin because we might not have agreements with them,” the official said.
“But the number of releases since the Presidential Proclamation and the interim final rule has gone into place have plummeted,” the official added.
Migrants crossing into the San Diego region are coming from “all over the world,” a border patrol agent in the region recently told The Post.
“China, India — there’s a lot of Indians, there’s just like a s–t ton — and Central Americans,” the agent said.
In June, more than 30,000 migrants were released into the country, according to internal data obtained by The Post.
From May to June, the number of Border Patrol migrant encounters at the southern border dropped from 117,901 to 83,536, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
CBP didn’t respond to The Post when reached for comment.
