A federal contractor transporting illegal immigrants in the U.S. said on-camera in August 2021 that the “government is betraying the American people.”
The footage, obtained by Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino, was recorded on police Sgt. Michael Hamborsky’s body camera at a Westchester County, New York, airport on Aug. 13, 2021, according to a piece published Wednesday by the New York Post. It shows Hamborsky speaking in the early morning hours to federal contractors overseeing migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border leaving a plane, which reportedly arrived after the airport’s curfew.
In the footage, the contractors tell Hamborsky that they cannot give him their work IDs. A dozen people also on the plane were from the private security firm MVM Inc., which contracted with the federal government last year to transport migrants around the U.S., according to the NY Post.
🚨 🚨🚨Gov’t contractor talking about the secret midnight flights from southern border into Westchester (NY) Airport:
“If it gets out… the government is betraying the American people.”
Stop lying to us.
Secure the border.
Uphold rule of law.https://t.co/Gd7UmTz7Ct pic.twitter.com/vAyGO1GvkQ— Rob Astorino (@RobAstorino) January 27, 2022
“I’m just trying to figure out what’s what, who’s who and how I’m supposed to keep this secure,” Hamborsky told the contractors. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: ‘Take Migrants At Their Word’: Republicans Criticize Process Allowing Illegal Immigrants To Get Through Airport Security Without ID)
While the contractors began to show him the lanyards they were wearing, one informed him that they are “not allowed to have our picture taken when we get on base,” apparently due to orders from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Army, according to the NY Post.
“DHS wants everything on the down-low,” replied one of the contractors. Another reportedly told Hamborsky that the Westchester County airport was chosen because it wasn’t “somewhere the spotlight is.”
“You want to try and be as down-low as possible,” the contractor said. “A lot of this is just down-low stuff that we don’t tell people because what we don’t want to do is attract attention. We don’t want the media. Like we don’t even know where we’re going when they tell us.”
When Hamborksy asked about the secrecy of the operation, a contractor replied, “You know why. Because if this gets out, the government is betraying the American people,” according to the NY Post.