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Immigration

Welcome packet reveals travel service for undocumented immigrants, courtesy of nonprofits

Hotels, free plane tickets, an airport escort and a plea for TSA to skip normal ID check. 

November 17, 2021 12:28am

Updated: November 17, 2021 5:44pm

Like travel agents preparing customers for a cruise, nonprofits working with the Biden administration have created detailed itineraries and information packets to help undocumented immigrants travel to wherever they want to go in the U.S., according to documents obtained by a Texas congressman. 

Often courtesy of American taxpayers struggling to pay their bills during surging inflation, undocumented immigrants are given free quality hotel rooms, plane tickets and transportation to the airport, travel maps, and instructions to TSA to bypass photo ID requirements, according to the documents shared with Just the News.

The prototype packet, which was provided by a whistleblower to Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), undermines Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' claim that the southern border is closed. Instead, it highlights an extensive network of nonprofits, corporations and family foundations working together to circumvent immigration laws passed by Congress.

The packet provided by Gooden to Just the News details a travel itinerary of a 46-year-old Honduran who entered the U.S. illegally in California, one of thousands assisted by the San Diego Rapid Response Network (SDRRN), which identifies itself as a "coalition of human rights and service organizations, attorneys and community leaders dedicated to aiding immigrants and their families in the San Diego border region of the U.S." 

One of its partners, Jewish Family Services, which did not immediately return request for comment, appears to have arranged the Honduran immigrant's travel, according to the documents.

"The state of California, U.S. corporations and nonprofits, and the Biden administration are facilitating human smuggling and child trafficking in our country," Gooden told Just The News. "They are allowing these migrants, many of whom are unknown to U.S. law enforcement agencies, to board commercial aircraft, creating one of the greatest threats to U.S. national security since September 11, 2001. It is time for transparency and accountability for everyone involved in exacerbating this crisis."

You can view the memos here.

UndocumentedImmigrantTravelPackage.pdf

File

The packet reveals that the Honduran immigrant traveled north to Mexico, and once there, received the first dose of the Astra-Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine one week prior to entering the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego, on Aug. 13. 

The Honduran migrant was processed by a Border Patrol agent and while in ICE custody was likely connected to a JFS contact tasked with coordinating his travel. This included booking a free room at the Four Points Sheraton in San Diego, a Marriott-owned three-star hotel near the city's Little Italy attractions, and a free United Airlines ticket to Louisiana, the Honduran immigrant's destination of choice. 

The packet includes a copy of a standard Department of Homeland Security I-862 form confirming the Honduran immigrant's undocumented immigrant status and eligibility for deportation and that the Border Patrol agent followed the law to the best of his ability.  

The form states, "On the basis of the foregoing, it is charged that you are subject to removal from the United State pursuant to the following provisions of law," citing Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The most recent financial statement for JFS shows it got more than $16 million in government support and lists numerous services it provided, including refugee resettlement, legal aid and migrant housing.

JFS did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.  

Under the Trump administration, the Honduran immigrant would likely have been processed for deportation through Operation Streamline, a policy Border Patrol agents credit as a successful deterrent to illegal immigration, which is no longer being implemented.

Under the Biden administration, the Honduran immigrant was given a travel service experience through the network involving SDRRN and JFS, which have opposed Trump-era immigration policies, including the Remain in Mexico Protocol. The RMP required those seeking asylum to wait in Mexico until their immigration hearing date. The Biden administration halted the policy earlier this year, but a federal judge recently ordered the administration to reinstate it.

JFS, which has described the RMP as "cruel and inhuman," began receiving hundreds of people a month pouring into California after RMP was halted. Since then, working with SDRRN Migrant Shelter Services, it has helped thousands of people with "case management, travel assistance, nutrition services, medical screenings, and financial support," according to its website.

For the week of Nov. 1-7, for example, it housed 429 people, including 73 children, primarily from Russia, Ukraine and Jamaica. It arranged their travel to 173 destinations in California in that week alone, and to 368 destinations in other states — also putting together travel itineraries like the Honduran immigrant's. 

The packet also includes instructions on how to check an immigration tribunal portal on the DOJ's website and call immigration court, how to find an attorney and apply for asylum, and a list of immigration NGOs, among other information. 

One paper in Spanish states, "people released at the border generally do not have an automatic right to live in the U.S.," and gives advice on ways to potentially stay in the U.S., including attending court hearings and enrolling children in U.S. public schools.

Another is a JSA letter addressed to TSA agents stating the Honduran immigrant is "currently showing you all of their identifications in their possession, which should be adequate …" and was "was recently discharged from an ICE detention facility and must cross the country to present themselves for an ICE check-in approximately two weeks from now." 

The letter to trigger the waiver of TSA ID requirements is not dated or signed. 

While federal law requires all travelers in the U.S. to show photo ID and go through security prior to boarding a commercial plane, undocumented immigrants are given preferential treatment by the Biden administration: no lines, no photo ID, and express security access.

Former acting CPB Commissioner Mark Morgan reviewed the packet and said the TSA instructions confirm what he's heard from many CPB officials — undocumented immigrants are being allowed into the U.S. without proving who they are.

Biden administration officials "say that the illegal aliens are being vetted," Morgan told the John Solomon Reports podcast Tuesday. "That's a joke. There is no way that aliens from 150 different countries, 1.7 million of them, most of them in the last 10 months, that they're actually able to properly vet them to know for sure who these individuals are. 

"We know that they're dropping their IDs on the banks of Mexico to come across and say, 'Oh, I don't have any ID' so it'll make it easier for them to get across. ... So think about it, we do not know definitively who these individuals [are] that are actually boarding planes going to every state in this country. If that is not alarming to every American citizen, then I don't know what is."