Commentary: GOP Asking Hard Questions After Mysterious Flights, Bus Trips Carry Migrants Into Kentucky, Tennessee

Amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis at our southern border that President Joe Biden’s administration still tries to assure us is not, in fact, a crisis, mysterious drops of busloads of migrants, including children, are being reported deep in the U.S. interior.

As you can imagine, Americans are starting to ask questions.

Early Friday morning, local news channels in Tennessee and Kentucky discovered that a busload of people, including children, had been flown into McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee, before being bused into southern Kentucky.

The children were loaded onto two buses from a flight that Knoxville-based WVLT-TV learned had originated in Long Beach, California.

An emergency facility at the Long Beach Convention Center is currently housing hundreds of illegal immigrant children displaced from other facilities accused of maintaining poor, unsafe conditions .

WVLT followed one bus up I-75 as it crossed into Whitley County, Kentucky, and observed the other head south from Knoxville, WKYT-TV in Lexington, Kentucky, reported.

It was unclear where they were going.

The stations reported they contacted the Tennessee-based charter company operating the buses, but when they asked about the mysterious migrant caravan, the company hung up, WKYT reported.

They also reached out to the offices of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear , a Democrat, and Republican U.S. Reps. Hal Rogers and Andy Barr. The governor's office response, if any, was unclear in the report. The offices of the two Kentucky congressmen said they were looking into the matter, according to WKYT.

Earlier this month, GOP lawmakers demanded answers from the Biden administration when multiple flights of unaccompanied migrant minors arrived over one week in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overnight, at Wilson Air Center.

“A source with direct knowledge of the operation asked to remain anonymous but tells Channel 3 that approximately 30 to 50 minors are transported at a time, some to reunite with family members and others to go to group homes,” reported Chattanooga station WRCB-TV , which broke the story.

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn said in a statement to WRCB that her office had received no information from the Biden administration on these mysterious middle-of-the-night flights. It is absolutely unacceptable if the Biden Administration is facilitating a mass migration under cover of darkness without any input or oversight from Tennesseans and the affected communities. https://t.co/e2LKVvOa8e

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) May 19, 2021

The Republican lawmaker also told Fox News that the drops were taking place “the dead of night without the knowledge or permission of the communities involved.”

Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty, a fellow Republican, agreed.

“I have warned for months that President Biden’s failure at the border would result in a systematic resettling of migrants in our communities, burdening our schools, hospitals, and law enforcement agencies, and bringing an increase in drug trafficking and human smuggling,” Hagerty also told Fox News. Further evidence of the systematic resettlement of migrants in our communities that is occurring because Biden won't secure the border or enforce immigration laws, making illegal entry easy & removal of illegals nonexistent. It's time for Biden to be transparent w/Tennesseans. https://t.co/RG7HXaCSXg

— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) May 19, 2021 Also this month, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee joined 19 other Republican governors to call on President Biden to address the staggering border crisis .

“The crisis is too big to ignore and is now spilling over the border states into all of our states,” the governors wrote. The crisis at our border is too big to ignore, and it's spilling into ALL of our states. I have led a joint letter with fellow Republican governors urging the Biden Administration to take immediate action at America's southern border. pic.twitter.com/9Igedxj9qr

— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) May 11, 2021

“The cause of the border crisis is entirely due to reckless federal policy reversals executed within your first 100 days in office,” the letter continued. “The rhetoric of the Biden Administration and the rollback of critical agreements with our allies have led to the inhumane treatment of tens of thousands of children and undermined a fragile immigration system.”

In another Twitter post days later, Lee wrote that the Biden administration had "emboldened one of the worst trafficking crisis we've seen" while refusing to give information to the states affected by it. When we demanded answers, they cut off transparency & emboldened one of the worst human trafficking crises we’ve seen at our border in the last 20 years. I commend @SenatorHagerty & @MarshaBlackburn for calling this out - Tennesseans deserve to know who is coming into our state.

— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) May 20, 2021

What is going on with these children, and why is this the second time they appear to have been mysteriously flown into Tennessee on multiple occasions?

There have already been plenty of concerns raised about what is happening with these children behind closed doors .

It’s time the administration answer for what it has caused — and what it's doing about it now, apparently in the shadow of night.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal .