RALEIGH — In recent months, videos and images of migrants boarding U.S. commercial airline flights have flooded social media.
This month, North State Journal reported on an American Airlines flight out of Arizona carrying non-U.S. citizens to Charlotte’s Douglas International Airport. Within hours of the article being posted online, a General Assembly staffer who wished to remain anonymous relayed a similar encounter at an Arizona airport while returning from a conference on Dec. 1, 2023.
Per the staffer, the individuals all appeared to have brand-new backpacks and were carrying plastic bags with what looked like “snacks.” The staffer said most of them were holding some kind of paperwork and many of them had seemingly new-looking smartphones.
The staffer also told North State Journal they spoked with a TSA official about an area that was “roped off” with a number of individuals that appeared to be of Hispanic descent. The TSA official confirmed to the staffer the individuals were all migrants who had crossed the border and were going to be sent through a special screening line.
The General Assembly staffer’s account lines up with images of signs for special migrant-only screening lines cropping up on social media platforms and as reported by Breitbart Texas.
What group or groups are funding flight activities is still unclear, but assistance is likely coming from one of hundreds of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and nonprofits working with migrant travel and resettlement.
Commercial airlines have indicated the tickets for the flights are arranged and paid for by an NGO or a nonprofit that is working with migrants. A commercial airline company gave similar information to North State Journal.
Most of these organizations are receiving millions, and sometimes billions, in related taxpayer-funded grants through various programs under federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The grants can pay for a wide variety of things for a migrant, including clothes, cell phones, food, shelter, and transportation as well as legal services that specifically serve migrants.
According to the immigration watchdog group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), DHS was estimated to be providing “$363.8 million of taxpayer dollars” through programs giving grants in Fiscal Year 2023 to NGOs and nonprofits to handle migrant arrivals. FAIR also noted that “it’s unclear how the money is actually spent by the NGOs and local governments.”
Some of the largest entities involved in migrant travel and facilitations are the American Red Cross, Church World Services, and Catholic Charities USA.
The American Red Cross works with various federally funded migrant programs, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Food and Shelter Program. That program received $350 million from DHS in February 2023.
In its 2022 financial statements, Church World Services reported over 76% of its revenue, more than $114.6 million, was from “government support.” For that same year, Catholic Charities USA posted $4.7 billion in total revenue, including $1.4 billion in government grants and $1 billion in private donations.
In North Carolina, there are dozens of nonprofits working with migrants. Church World Services operates chapters in multiple cities such as Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro and Wilmington.
Church World Services chapters in North Carolina run an “NC-Immigrant Solidarity Fund,” described as a “statewide, grassroots effort to support undocumented and mixed status families facing financial hardship due to a recent ICE detention & deportation, emergency, or natural disaster.”
Last December, North State Journal attempted unsuccessfully to contact the Latin American Coalition, a nonprofit in the Charlotte area that works with migrants, about non-U.S. citizen arrivals into Charlotte by plane or other means.
North State Journal has been in communication with another Charlotte-area nonprofit assisting migrants called Camino.org.
Per its website, the Camino offers numerous services, “including but not limited to, general healthcare, behavioral therapy, upward mobility, professional development, and education.”
Camino Public Relations Manager Paola Garcia in an email said that between May 1, 2023, and Jan. 3, 2024, they had worked with a total of 811 migrant individuals made up of both adults and children.
Garcia said there were 189 school-aged children and that Camino helped 43 register for school with another 95 still needing assistance.
Other assistance area statistics the same period of time provided by Garcia include:
Permanent housing support (renting): 422 individuals
Temporary Housing Support (family/friend, shelter, hotel): 389 individuals
Food Pantry Referrals: 645 individuals
Clothing Support: 630 individuals
Transportation Support (bus pass, Uber): 441 individuals
Employment Support: 265 individuals
Clinic Referral: 298 individuals
How are these migrants boarding planes without proper identification?
Migrants appear to be getting on domestic flights through special TSA screening lines. The TSA has not yet elaborated or officially explained the special screening lines or the legal process behind them.
In February 2022, it was confirmed the TSA had been allowing migrants to use civil immigration arrest warrants, known as ICE Form I-200, as valid proof of ID to board flights for over a year. These warrants are not necessarily criminal in nature but are quite different from the restrictions placed on U.S. citizens for air travel.
Former Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Mike Morgan told the Daily Signal in April 2021, that migrants “go wherever the work is. Illegal aliens get to choose. The NGOs typically ask where they would like to go.”
Morgan made the comments after witnessing groups of migrants boarding an American Airlines flight out of McAllen International Airport in Texas.
While the public may recently be noticing more often that migrants are being shipped to all parts of the country via commercial flights, the practice is not new.
The use of commercial flights to transport migrants in some cases pre-dates the Biden administration. The practice was used during a surge of migrants attempting to cross the border in 2019 under former President Donald Trump, however, his administration took steps to curb the process.
Early on in his term, President Joe Biden was criticized for “secret night flights” or “ghost flights” filled with migrants that were landing at various urban area airports around the country. Many of these flights were for unaccompanied minors being sent to a relative who had been located.
In March 2021, the Biden Administration restarted a process of transporting migrants from the border on commercial airline flights and referred to them as “lateral flights.” Per ABC News, the program was suspended that May, however, a spokesperson for DHS said the government “reserves the right to restart the lateral flights if it deems the circumstances warrant.”
How many NGOs are aiding border crossers?
The answer changes from year to year and also from state to state, however, at least 30 operating near the southern border were tracked in 2022 by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The group published findings of a multi-phase immigration oversight project in late 2022 which tracked the activity of 30 NGOs near the border using cellphone data.
In phase two of the Heritage investigation, 20 NGO facilities were geofenced based on human source information and open-source intelligence of suspected involvement in facilitating illegal alien transportation. In January 2022, over 22,000 unique mobile devices were identified at these facilities, and subsequent tracing revealed connections to 431 out of 435 U.S. congressional districts.
Phase three and four, which had even narrower criteria, had comparable results and the report concluded “NGOs are playing a central role in the mass resettlement of illegal aliens in the United States.”
