After months of Fox News flying their drones over the international bridge in Del Rio, TX, with no problem, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) abruptly placed a two-week flight restriction along the border citing special security reasons, which would prevent reports from documenting the crisis.
The announcement was made after recent footage showed thousands of illegal migrants sheltering under the Del Rio bridge and waiting to be processed. It was reported that a majority of the migrants waiting under the bridge are Haitian. Customs and Border Protection encountered 208,887 migrants in August, which is a 317% increase over August 2020 and a 233% increase over August 2019.
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin first broke the announcement on the restriction, adding that they can no longer fly their FOX drone over the area to show images of the thousands of migrants. He explained how border patrol was overwhelmed and the situation was out of control. While FAA cited special security reasons, Melugin said they’ve been covering the border with their drone for nearly 7 months now without any issues. He said they reached out to the FAA on clarification but haven’t heard anything back yet.
The FAA later released a statement about how Border Patrol requested temporary flight restriction due to the drones interfering with law enforcement flights, They said the media can make requests to document areas below the bridge, where over 8,000 migrants are currently waiting to be apprehended and processed. The FAA even said that Fox News had applied for clearance and can operate their drone through the end of September. They’ve denied that grounding the drones has anything to do with news gatherings.
But many GOP reps have criticized the FAA’s rule, with Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton saying the FAA “better be ready” to explain to Congress why they’ve decided to block the media from covering President Joe Biden’s border crisis.
At the same time, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also announced that he would be closing points of entry at the border due to the migrant situation and the sheer negligence of the Biden Administration to do their job. He said he has directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas National Guard to maintain their presence at the points of entry to deter any crossings.
Sen. John Kennedy pointed out the sheer “lunacy” of the Biden Administration’s open border policy, adding that they don’t want the American public to think what they are doing is illegal. Kennedy talked about the people wanting to come to America for a better life, adding how he is proud of America’s legal immigration system. He did, however, point out Biden’s policies for letting criminals, child predators, drug dealers, and terrorists into the country.
“The idea of saying that anybody who wants to come in can come in is lunacy and the American people don’t support it, which is why I think the Biden administration is preventing the usage of the drones,” Kennedy claimed.
Kennedy even compared trusting the Biden Administration to handle illegal immigration the same as “trusting Harvey Weinstein with your daughter.” He said the Biden Administration “lies like they breathe” and likened them to timeshare salesmen. He emphasized how the Biden Administration has decided to racialize the issue and misjudge the American people as “racists” for wanting to stop illegal immigration at the points of entry and build a border wall.
The Biden Administration campaigned on transparency and is delivering anything but. They’ll continue shutting out the media, casting out news drones, and pushing whatever narratives they want until they get called out on it. Even then, it is usually liberal word salad. Under the Trump administration, everything was about ‘kids in cages.’ Now the crisis is worse than ever and the media is radio-silent.
