Feds reportedly charter 'ghost flights' to Pennsylvania for illegal immigrants

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has chartered dozens of flights with illegal immigrants into Scranton, Penn., during the month of December, according to state lawmakers raising the alarm.

Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) and gubernatorial candidate and former Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) wrote letters asking Democratic officials for answers. The National Pulse reported that one source described the illegal migrant transportation as "ghost flights" due to their secretive nature. Some flights arrive at night and none of the flights have a public passenger manifest.

Meuser wrote a letter Thursday to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting ICE Director Tae Johnson. 

"I am extremely concerned by recent reports that the federal government has flown illegal immigrants to the Wilkes Barre-Scranton International Airport," he wrote. 

A total of 130 immigrants, including 118 minors and 12 adults, arrived on one chartered flight Dec. 17 and were transported to an unknown location, Meuser stated.

He said the "Biden administration has shown no concern for the lawlessness and chaos they have created at the border," said his constituents are feeling the direct effects of this.

Barletta on Thursday pressed Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro, both Democrats, for answers about the flights. He said the Dec. 17 evening flight may have chartered as many as 180 illegal immigrants. 

Focusing on national security issues, Barletta said, "it is extremely difficult to adequately screen people and conduct a thorough background check when they have entered the country by illegal means."

Barletta added Sunday that on Christmas, two more "secret planes" from El Paso, Texas, landed in Scranton, possibly with more illegal immigrants.

“I asked Gov. Wolf and Attorney General Shapiro a series of straightforward questions about these flights, and they haven’t provided any answers,” Barletta wrote. “Now we see evidence of more flights on Christmas night, and people want to know if illegal immigrants are being transported to our community, whether they’ve undergone background checks and health screenings, and why no one was notified that this was happening.”

He is demanding that the governor and attorney general "come clean with the citizens and be honest about what they’re doing.”

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier this month that more than 70 night flights have brought illegal migrants into Jacksonville since the summer in what he calls a "human smuggling operation."

Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) in November told Just the News that illegal immigrants who lack official identification documents are put through alternate security screenings and their bags are not checked.