As migrant crossings at the southern border increase by the day, Congressman Matt Gaetz is asking the chief executive of Delta Air Lines, Edward Bastion, about his company’s involvement in transporting those same migrants throughout the country. One conservative activist, Ashley St. Clair, and a Fox News reporter, Bill Melugin, first reported that airports now have lines for “non-US citizens without passports” at airports. 

“It has recently come to my attention that Delta Air Lines is transporting non-resident aliens from the southern border of the United States into the interior of the country,” Mr. Gaetz writes to Mr. Bastion. “The United States Congress has an interest in understanding pursuant to which arrangements with federal agencies and non-governmental organizations non-resident aliens are able to book and travel on Delta Air Lines flights.”

Mr. Gaetz asks Mr. Bastion to provide information about these flights and Delta’s possible reimbursement from the federal government and NGOs. The Florida congressman wants to know how many of these migrants have been able to travel freely on Delta since President Biden’s inauguration, how this arrangement came about, and whether or not the company has been offered any “incentive” to operate these flights, among other things. 

The existence of these travel arrangements were first reported by a Ms. St. Clair, who witnessed what appeared to be dozens of migrants boarding her Delta flight at Phoenix. Ms. St. Clair says on X that when asked a Delta representative about the presence of the migrants, the employee responded, “What does it matter, they’re humans too.”

An immigration reporter for Fox News, Bill Melugin, reports that the same thing was happening at Tucson. “This was the sign at the ‘immigration line’ I saw at Tucson airport last night where airport personnel were directing illegal immigrants who had been released with their DHS paperwork,” Mr. Melugin wrote on X, including photos of the migrants-only security line. “Non citizens with no passports only. This was at TSA security for domestic flight — not at customs, not international.”

Mr. Gaetz wants to know if American taxpayers are on the hook for these flights, asking about the NGOs that “receive federal grants, including through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program and Shelter and Services Program.”

“Even more alarming than American taxpayers footing the bill for non-resident aliens to be transported into our communities is that they may not be properly vetted,” Mr. Gaetz writes. “Therefore, I am concerned the Transportation Security Administration may be allowing non-resident aliens to board flights, including those operated by Delta Air Lines, with an alternate form of identification that meets a weaker standard than that used to verify the identities of American citizens when they fly.”

The rapid increase in migrant crossings, according to Fox News, has overwhelmed law enforcement and the asylum processing system. On December 18 alone, Reuters reports, more than 14,000 individuals crossed the southern border from Mexico, comprising migrants from South America, Asia, and Africa. 

The backlog of migrants awaiting processing before immigration judges has swelled at a historic pace. In just the last 12 months, the number of those with court dates ballooned to 3 million from 2 million, meaning each immigration judge now has an average of 4,500 pending cases.