(Headline USA) Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said this week he is filing a lawsuit against the Biden administration for flying thousands of illegal immigrants into the state.
In the lawsuit, Bailey accused the Department of Homeland Security of deliberately hiding information about flights it has chartered from the border into Missouri.
Bailey said he had submitted multiple Freedom of Information Act requests for additional transparency regarding these flights, but has been denied answers repeatedly.
“This game of ‘hide and seek’ violates the spirit and the letter of FOIA, which states that an agency shall withhold information only when the agency ‘reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption’ or if ‘disclosure is prohibited by law’,” the lawsuit said, according to KCTV.
Bailey argued Missourians had a right to know how many illegal immigrants were being shipped into their state by the Biden administration, as well as which countries those migrants were from.
“DHS’s withholding of crucial information has frustrated the ability of citizens to exercise the rights Congress outlined in the FOIA statute,” said the lawsuit.
“This lack of transparency and refusal to comply with lawful FOIA demands has hindered efforts by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office to determine the size and scope of illegal immigration within the Show Me state,” it added.
Bailey said the DHS’s continued stonewalling in this case was part of a larger pattern of deception and diversion the Biden administration has used to justify its immigration policies.
“Here in Missouri, we hold bad actors accountable when they refuse to obey the law, even the federal government. I will not stop until I obtain answers for Missourians,” Bailey said.
Earlier this summer, Missouri was one of 18 states that filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over President Joe Biden’s “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” executive order, which they said allowed “vast numbers of aliens to enter the country and receive instant work authorization and quick access to public benefits.”
