MONTGOMERY – Orange County Airport in Montgomery had an unusual landing late Friday afternoon as dozens of teens were observed running from a jet to a waiting coach bus.
Sources said 25 youths, mostly girls under the age of 17, were sent to Orange County from El Paso, Texas as part of the ongoing movement of immigrants from the Lone Star State to other areas of the country as ordered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. On Saturday, a Homeland Security spokesman, Luis Miranda, emailed Mid-Hudson News saying, “The Department of Homeland Security was not involved in any flight as detailed in your story.” If that is the case, what agency send the children north remains a mystery.
The passengers were from Honduras and Guatemala.
When the large bus left Orange County Airport, it turned onto Route 211 in the Village of Montgomery and police were there to pull it over. There were three adults on the bus, including the driver, all with Texas driver’s licenses.
State and Montgomery Village Police stood guard as officials attempted to call Homeland Security and other agencies to learn details of the shipment of people to the north.
This was the third flight this week from Texas to the county airport bringing passengers north. All of them were reportedly going to be relocated to various parts of New York State.
One source said the plane was routed to the small county airport so as not to draw attention that it might otherwise have caused at New York Stewart International Airport at nearby Newburgh or Westchester County Airport in White Plains, both of which have been used in recent months to send immigrants north.