DeSantis to Send More Illegal Immigrants to Democrat-Controlled Areas

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks in a neighborhood impacted by Hurricane Ian at Fisherman's Wharf in Fort Myers, Fla., on Oct. 5, 2022. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says that he’s planning to send more illegal immigrants who crossed the U.S.–Mexico border in recent days to Democrat-controlled areas, following his headline-grabbing move last month of transporting Venezuelan nationals to Martha’s Vineyard.

A spokesperson for the Republican governor said that the flights of illegal aliens will resume following cleanup efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, which slammed into Florida’s western coastline as a Category 4 storm in late September.

“While Florida has had all hands on deck responding to our catastrophic hurricane, the immigration relocation program remains active,” Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’s communications director, told the New York Post over the weekend.

She didn’t elaborate about when or where the illegal immigrants will be transported.

DeSantis in mid-September sent about 50 illegal immigrants, who had recently crossed into the United States from Mexico, to Martha’s Vineyard, a wealthy and elite enclave located in Massachusetts. Within hours, the governor of the state deployed the National Guard, and those illegal aliens were taken to a military base on Cape Cod.

Other Plans

DeSantis previously said that relocating the illegal aliens to Democrat-controlled areas and “sanctuary” cities, which flout federal immigration law to accommodate illegal aliens, is a better option, noting that Florida isn’t a sanctuary state. The move prompted pushback from Democratic leaders, with the Treasury Department confirming in a letter to senators that it’s investigating whether Florida used COVID-19-related funds for relocation flights to Martha’s Vineyard.

At the same time, the governor has rebuffed claims that his plan was a form of human trafficking, noting that the Venezuelans voluntarily signed up for the flights. All the illegal aliens who went to the Massachusetts island had to sign consent forms, he said last month.

“It was clearly voluntary, and all the other nonsense you’re hearing is just not true,” DeSantis told Sean Hannity on Fox News last month. “And why wouldn’t they want to go, given where they were?”

The illegal immigrants who were sent to Massachusetts from around San Antonio were in “bad shape,” had been “abandoned,” and were “homeless” before the flight, DeSantis said.

Illegal immigrants from Venezuela stand outside St. Andrew's Church in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, Mass., on Sept. 14, 2022. Ray Ewing/Vineyard Gazette/Handout via Reuters

“They were in really, really bad shape,” DeSantis said during the Fox News interview. “There are jobs available in Martha’s Vineyard. There is lodging available in Martha’s Vineyard. Had they lived up to ... what they bill themselves out as a sanctuary jurisdiction, they could have absorbed those people without a problem.”

One anti-illegal immigration group says that since President Joe Biden took office, about 5 million people have illegally crossed into the United States from Mexico.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said weeks ago that as of July, “the total of illegal aliens crossing our borders since President Biden took office [has risen] to 4.9 million, including some 900,000 ‘gotaways’ who eluded apprehension and have since disappeared into American communities.”

“Roughly the equivalent of the entire population of Ireland has illegally entered the United States in the 18 months President Biden has been in office, with many being released into American communities,” Dan Stein, president of FAIR, said in a statement. “In that time, the Biden administration has blamed an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration on all sorts of external factors, except their own sabotage of our nation’s immigration laws.”

Emergency Declarations

Several Democrat-controlled municipalities have declared emergencies over the influx of illegal immigrants being bused from places such as Texas and Arizona in recent days. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and officials in the Democrat-controlled city of El Paso, Texas, have sent thousands of illegal aliens to the cities of New York, Chicago, and Washington this year.

New York Mayor Eric Adams earlier this month declared an emergency after Texas and other areas sent 17,000 illegal aliens to the city in recent months.

“This is a humanitarian crisis that started with violence and instability in South America and is being accelerated by American political dynamics,” Adams said at a press conference on Oct. 7, without mentioning Biden’s lax immigration policies.

“Thousands of asylum-seekers have been bused into New York City and simply dropped off, without notice, coordination, or care—and more are arriving every day.”