A New York Democrat on Tuesday asked Biden’s White House for answers about underage migrants secretly slipped into his district – after learning about the situation from The Post.
Representative Tom Suozzi, whose district includes parts of Long Island and Queens, said he was “very angry and frustrated that he was not informed in advance.”
“You know, I learned this for the first time from The Post! ” he said.
“I have been discussing with the administration for six months. I said, ‘I want you to tell us, how many children are coming to our area? What schools do they go to? And they haven’t given us detailed information yet.
Suozzi also read a letter to President Biden on Tuesday, saying: “As of June 2021, the Refugee Resettlement Office reported that 2,494 unaccompanied minors had been relocated to Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties. “
Suozzi’s remarks followed an exclusive Post report that revealed how the Biden administration had flown planes full of unaccompanied minors from Texas to airports in Westchester County and Jacksonville, Fla.
Last week, The Post watched three charter jets land at night and saw some of the kids travel by bus to the Syosset campus of MercyFirst, a nonprofit sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy.
The organization has a contract to provide the federal government with residential services for “immigrant youth,” according to its website.
Suozzi, who held a press conference outside the entrance to the MercyFirst site, said there were “less than 100 people at this facility: 50 of them immigration-related, the rest are child protection cases â€.
“And within 40 or 50 days, they’re relocated here on Long Island or other places across the country,” he said of the migrants.
A spokesperson for MercyFirst declined to comment and referred The Post to the US Department of Health and Human Services, where a spokesperson has not answered calls or has no working voicemail.
Suozzi said he spoke earlier today with HHS Assistant Secretary Andrea Palm, who “said they didn’t want to use commercial jets because of COVID concerns, because of security concerns, so they started chartering planes.
Suozzi said he also touched on the “big deal” Long Island has had with violent crime linked to the MS-13 gang, which was founded by immigrants from El Salvador.
“Children identified as being gang affiliated, bearing markings or any other type of indication that they are gang members, are not allowed to come to these facilities,†Suozzi said.
“They are being sent to supervised facilities, nowhere in the northeast. “
On Saturday night, The Post saw a group of 10 to 15 people wearing matching white baseball caps and carrying duffel bags get off a plane in Jacksonville and be driven by bus to a juvenile detention center about two hours away. the.
Another US representative from Long Island, Republican Andrew Garbarino, sent Biden a letter saying, “This attempt by your administration to discreetly transport unaccompanied minors in the middle of the night is unreasonable.”
“On behalf of my constituents, I demand transparency from your administration on the placement of migrants in New York and across the country,†he wrote.
“All Americans deserve to know how your poorly managed border policies will impact each of our communities.”
