Writing on Twitter, Robert Astorino, seeking Republican Candidacy for NY Governor in 2022, charged on his Twitter account Friday that at least two days of arrivals of illegal immigrants have been flown into Westchester County Airport for resettlement:
“Hundreds of undocumented immigrants from crisis at southern border flown into Westchester Co. Airport each of last several nights. Why was this a secret? Where are they being resettled? Who is paying? Have they been tested for COVID?”
Christine Sculti, Republican Candidate for Westchester County Executive this fall issued this statement on the matter late Sunday night:
Social media has been abuzz with reports that plane loads of undocumented immigrants from the southern border have been flown into Westchester County Airport – a county facility – on multiple occasions, all in the dead of the night and all without the community being notified.
Westchester residents are demanding transparency from their leaders and rightly asking, what did George Latimer know and when did he know it?
Today,(Sunday) George Latimer finally admitted that he was notified at least two days ago that the federal government would begin flying persons who entered the United States illegally into Westchester County Airport. Latimer only admitted to having received advance notice when pressed by an eruption of reports on social media that this was happening.
George Latimer’s preposterous claim that he only knew about the flights for 48 hours is completely implausible and defies common sense. Worse are his attempts to claim the valid concerns of residents are driven by ideology and politics. Our concerns are driven by public safety and public health. While I am not privy to all of the details that the County Executive has, and I do not claim to have all the facts, I am requesting answers to the following questions:
1) How is it possible that you are unaware and uninformed of what is going on in your own airport that you are in charge of?
2) Would the federal government have chosen Westchester as a destination had George Latimer not made Westchester a Sanctuary County?
3) Were any non-Sanctuary jurisdictions included in this program?
4) If it is indeed true that you knew about the flights for “only” 48 hours, why did you choose not to notify Westchester residents?
5) What questions did you pose to the federal government upon being informed?
6) Would you have ever notified Westchester residents had social media not exploded with the reports?
7) How many flights, containing how many passengers, have flown into your county airport without you knowing anything about it?
8) Are there any future flights scheduled?
9) What is the vaccination status of the passengers?
10) Did your Westchester County Department of Health conduct Covid screenings on all arriving passengers?
11) What precautions has your Westchester County Department of Health and airport officials taken with the incoming passengers, given that we are undergoing a spike in Covid cases and the Delta variant continues to spread?
12) Do flight manifests exist, as we need to know if any of the passengers pose a safety risk for residents?
13) Has your Westchester County Department of Public Safety done background checks on all incoming passengers to be aware of possible criminal backgrounds?
14) Do you support these flights – filled with passengers who are very likely unvaccinated – coming into your airport?
15) Do you want the passengers placed in our communities and in our schools, regardless of criminal records or vaccination status?
Westchester residents deserve reassurances from their county and federal governments as to the immunization status and screening for criminal pasts of these individuals. We are also entitled to know which communities will be responsible for supporting them while the immigration administrative and judicial processes unfold.
A pandemic is not the time for experiments in social engineering promoted by the radical left through Sanctuary jurisdictions like Westchester. Westchester residents deserve transparency and have a right to answers to all of these questions – and more. The time has come for George Latimer to be held accountable to his residents.”
