The Director of the Harlingen, Texas airport said he was “trying to figure out” where all of the passenger growth at his airport was coming from, and why so many more people were flying out of Harlingen than back to the airport. Normally the number of arriving passengers and departing passengers is roughly in balance.
Instead in June,
- 31,920 passengers departed Harlingen
- 27,696 passengers arrived there
That combined for more than 11% year over year passenger growth, but the increase is more pronounced looking just at departure.
Harlingen isn’t the only small Texas airport seeing a rise in passengers — and specifically an increase just in departing passengers.
- In June McAllen, Texas had 38,000 passengers depart the airport, but just 33,000 arrive.
- Brownsville had their passenger numbers go up from 9000 in February to 12,000 in March — but only 7000 arriving passengers.
Copyright: prestonia / 123RF Stock Photo
It turns out that the TSA was able to shed some light on the phenomenon. It’s not people packing up and leaving Texas, heading back to California. It’s asylum seekers. They arrive over land, but once their asylum claims are processed they sometimes depart by air.
This is just somebody that’s seeking asylum and comes in and they go through the process, they’re processed, and that way they get a hearing date.
And that hearing date might be in Chicago or other places where they have family.. There was a huge release at that point because they were just overwhelmed. So you got all those enplanements all at once.
Copyright: andreyuu / 123RF Stock Photo
However the increase in passenger numbers has been “tapering off.”
Interesting article. However, I am expecting the TDS termites to arrive shortly in mass.
excellent, so I guess us taxpayers are paying for them to fly out of their also along with paying for border control customs officers ,and to feed and clothe and house the illegals and then we pay to send them here ,send them there,wow,maybe we should have built the wall and saved a lot money in the long run even if a quarter of them still made it here somehow,but no we couldn’t do that because that’s something Trump wanted and obviously we have to vote against everything that Trump wants, basically just a scorched-earth policy
Miles4Migrants has been flying some of them, reuniting families, many of which get separated during the process of applying for asylum. Check them out if you want to donate some miles to help.
@Ryan Booth … great … the more miles donated, the more migrants in the long run …
For what it’s worth, Dean – they are asylum seekers – they arrived at border entry points. The WALL would be of no value.
Yes, we need to vote against Trump’s fantasy ideas whenever possible….
Lovely. Only the best for our new arrivals. Don’t drink from the airplane toilet.
Clearly Dean must be a Native American, else his argument would be so hypocritical it would be laughable
What documents are they using to clear TSA security?
@Eric
Oh come on, that argument is such crap. The ancestors of many Americans that arrived 100 or 200 years ago from distant countries did not get free handouts upon arrival. It was sink or swim. These days, resources (raised via taxes from Americans) are being diverted to foreign citizens. What a shame.
Other Just Saying:
the correct term is “en masse”. It’s Latin.
Another Americanized bastardization often seen is “per say” (per se) or “walla” (voila).
English iz tuff.
@Gary. You do know that Robert Booth made a blatant request for money/miles in the comment section for an organization that is financing illegal aliens.
The Points Guy has promoted several charities with posts. If you intend to promote this organization, then by all means, do a post. Supporting charities (even those whose political agendas I do not agree with) are a really good thing. However, I think you should seriously consider whether or not you want to have your blog hijacked to promote organizations that you have not personally selected to promote.
@brian
Good on ya! Too right.
@Eric
Given your comment do you still refer to this land, that is known the world over as the United States of America, as The New World? Your asinine remark would suggest that to be true. Here’s a little info for you:
During the period of Colonization Spain, Mother England, and France were responsible for settling territories with colonists much like yourself. When they did so, these lands became part of as you call them today the “Commonwealth” of the respective Mother Lands. When the New World colonists broke free via war/s they drew up declarations that were recognized and accepted. As the New World grew by hook or by crook, the lands were then incorporated into said New World. The inhabitants of said lands became citizens under the declaration of the New World through Statehood, not feudalism. These states were granted self-governance that was ruled by the New World. Those that were inhabiting the new states of the New World would no longer be considered immigrants and neither would Colonists such as yourself.
Any individual that arrives post New World would be entering the United States of America, I’m sure your devastated by this information. The former New World, United States of America, has laws and regulations in place to keep it’s interests safe, boundaries/borders happen to be one of those interests.
Regarding immigration, the laws apply fully else-wise anarchy would ensue. There are processes that are based on laws and these laws must be upheld otherwise no other laws matter. As is the case with the Unites States of America, formerly the New World, asylum seekers have only 2 conditions: Seeking a better life, known as Economic Asylum, does not qualify as asylum. The UNHCR fails to recognize Economic Asylum. This would mean that those entering under the aforementioned are subject to the “Law of the land” or Rule of Law.
Your reasoning is flawed and really laughable.
I fly a lot of of Brownsville and Harlingen. The airport manager must not get up early to see the departing flights at 5:30. For the past two years, all the early morning flights have 10-15 unaccompanied minor children, which are now chaperoned, by government contracted employees. Once these kids are lined up with relatives within the US, they are flown to the airport of their choice. With all the baloney you see about the mistreatment of these children, they all have new clothes, new shoes and a new duffle bag all paid for by taxpayers along with their plane ticket. Our fares are sky high because the planes are always full on these first flights. And it happens EVERY day.
@Other Just Saying my time in the comments has been highly limited today I actually haven’t paid attention to this, certainly haven’t vetted any charity. As a general matter I don’t discuss my own charitable giving, probably owing to my jewish upbringing.
No kidding Brian. Liberals just don’t have the ability to think through obvious logic.
Everyone in that part of Texas knows Harlingen is full of detained immigrants and has been for years.
If the airport director can’t figure out where growth is coming from that means he is either a dotard or simply has no idea which aircraft are arriving/departing his airport. Or worse, he’s just totally clueless and has a patronage job.
Or just disingenuous.
Let’s just go with disingenuous.
I usually glide over these politically charged posts but this is one of the things you just can’t understand unless you’ve seen it. I live in South Texas and this story does not surprise me at all. I wish everyone else in this country could see the reality of the border situation instead of what their favored news source cherry picks to progress its particular agenda. The plight of these people is terrible. That is a fact. I don’t blame them for trying to come to America. But the plight of hundreds of millions of people across the world is no better so where do you draw the line? When they are able to knock on the door? The simple reality is that this situation of endless asylum is simply not sustainable at this rate. Take a look at the economic status of most families in South Texas if you want to see how this ultimately can play out for the rest of the nation. Sadly, Americans elsewhere will not realize this until it’s too late and our congress is too angry and partisan to enact middle of the road legislation that could stem the endless tide while still being open to a reasonable amount of legitimate asylum seekers. Good news is it looks y’all should be able to find some super cheap open seats to South Texas so you can go see for yourself.
I fly a lot of of Brownsville and Harlingen. The airport manager must not get up early to see the departing flights at 5:30. For the past two years, all the early morning flights have 10-15 unaccompanied minor children, which are now chaperoned, by government contracted employees. Once these kids are lined up with relatives within the US, they are flown to the airport of their choice. With all the baloney you see about the mistreatment of these children, they all have new clothes, new shoes and a new duffle bag all paid for by taxpayers along with their plane ticket. Our fares are sky high because the planes are always full on these first flights. And it happens EVERY day.
The government (taxpayers) are not flying these folks anywhere. Their families or charitable organizations are flying them to a destination where they can have support. If they stay with family, we are not paying to house and feed them. Once they have been processed for an asylum claim, they are released until their hearing date. It is perfectly legal to come to this Country and ask at the border for asylum. They are not here illegally unless and until their request for asylum has been denied and they do not leave the Country.
@OJS it must be hard livin’ in ol NYC, given all the diversity and progressive beliefs around you every day. Must be tough not accusing everyone of TDS all day long. Shame.
No taxpayer money for the flight out, nor travel expenses here,
They are well supported and well paid,.,
@ Gary — Would love see this at DCA.
Hi UA-NYC (aka Waterbug). I was going to call you a termite, but most of the buildings in New York city are made of brick, cement, metal, and glass. Termites will not destroy the foundations of those buildings. Therefore, I think you must be one of those waterbugs that fly around New York City. Taking about water, did you get in on throwing water at cops. Even your fearless leader De Blasio has come out against that. You must be so sad.
@WTF is TDS. Thanks. I stand corrected. My mistake was per se stupid.
@Claire
https://govtribe.com/award/federal-idv-award/indefinite-delivery-contract-hscedm14d00006
Try again. This was the initial contract from 2014 that expired. Looks like the company billed $277 million for their services. So yea, tax payers do fund these services. The company was MVM, Inc.
When I saw the headline, I figured that a lot of people had a sudden attack of common sense.
These are not “passengers”. These are illegal criminal aliens who file false asylum claims. We don’t want people who commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime and bring poor standard here. The real issue is they are not immediately returned to Mexico the same day as the break into the U.S.
@ WTF is TDS:
The adverbial phrase “en masse” is a French term, not Latin. Its origin, though, can be traced back to Latin.
Etymology of “en masse”:
Borrowed from French en masse (literally “in a mass”):
[en (“in”) + masse (“dough, paste; something perceived as a whole without distinguishing its parts; sum or combination of things treated as a whole”)
(from Latin massa (“dough; bulk, mass”), from Ancient Greek μᾶζᾰ (mâza, “barley-bread or cake”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂ḱ- (“to increase; to raise”)). (Wiktionary)
@Jack Thompson is completely correct when he says “We don’t want people who commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime and bring poor standard here.” Since native born USA citizens commit more crimes than immigrants, we should deport our citizens and take the immigrants.
Trump is correct when he notes that America, and therefore it’s legitimate tax paying residents are being sucked dry.