Last summer, I was notified of secret nighttime flights coming to Westchester County Airport carrying thousands of illegal immigrants detained on the southern border. Since I oversaw the airport during my tenure as a county executive, I knew that flights arriving after midnight are not allowed, so I started asking questions publicly.
Who are on these planes? Have they been vetted and tested for COVID? How many flights are there so far and how many are planned? Where are these illegal immigrants placed and who pays for all this? Have background checks been done, especially on the adults?
What happened next was completely predictable. I and other locals were simply called “racist” and “xenophobic” for asking questions. It appears that neither the current district administration nor the governor had any interest or interest in knowing what was happening in their jurisdiction.
We ignored the taunts and continued to demand answers.
Finally, we were informed that these were only unaccompanied minors and were not resettled locally. That was a lie. I eventually learned that the flights started in April and became more frequent by the summer with larger planes. I personally witnessed and filmed dozens of adult male migrants boarding charter buses and being dropped off at waiting cars at a nearby Costco parking lot.
And New York Post journalist Miranda Devine’s investigation found that many of the undocumented migrants were indeed resettled in Westchester, Long Island and the other suburbs of New York.
Recently, after one of the flights, we secured police CCTV footage of the tarmac. The recording shows a government contractor telling a police sergeant that Homeland Security wants the flights from the border “in the depths”. … Everything is supposed to be quiet.”
At the end of the video, another government contractor tells the officer that if this operation were successful, “the government would betray the American people.”
Our government is lying to us. When we ask questions, they reject us, throttle us, and call us bigots.
Sounds familiar? I’m sure this is true of millions of parents who dared to question lengthy school closures, mask mandates, or school curriculum. These mothers and fathers were labeled fanatics, extremists and worse, domestic terrorists.
I’m sure it sounds familiar to families of police officers and the general public who have been fired for questioning soft-on-crime policies, such as no-cash bail here in New York, the failure of prosecutors to prosecute crime, move to “unburden the police” and empty our prisons.
And it is known to those concerned about reports of 9,000 undocumented immigrants being waved into our country every day. Should we just accept this? I don’t blame people who want to come to America. I blame the government for not defending the borders of this country and enforcing our laws.
Unfortunately, it is not just our government that lies to us and calls us racists. The mainstream media does it too. They should be the ones demanding answers on behalf of the public. They should hold the powerful accountable rather than despise ordinary citizens. However, the mainstream media has either ignored these issues or mimicked the left’s discussion points.
In the beginning, the strategy of silencing people with slander and condemnation may have worked, but the situation with our government has gotten so out of hand that people are starting to stand up and speak out. We can’t take it anymore.
We want to be heard. We want answers. We want normalcy and safety for our families and communities. We want respect. If the public continues to be turned away and ignored, the uprising will be felt quickly and strongly at the ballot box in November.
Rob Astorino is a Republican nominee for Governor of New York and served as Westchester County Executive from 2010 to 2017. Twitter: @robastorino