DeSantis defends migrant flights in trip to US-Mexico border
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[June 08, 2023]
By James Oliphant
(Reuters) - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis defended flying planeloads of
migrants across the country during a trip to the U.S. southern border on
Wednesday, as he looks to make hardline immigration policies a central
tenet of his 2024 presidential bid.
The Republican candidate's stop in Arizona came a day after the state of
Florida acknowledged it had overseen two chartered flights of migrants
from Texas to Sacramento, California, last week, drawing sharp rebukes
from California Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials.
“This policy has been debated now for a long time," DeSantis said. “I
think it’s something that has been very, very effective.”
DeSantis, a top contender in the Republican primary fight led by
front-runner Donald Trump, has made border security a focus of his
campaign, accusing the Biden administration of lax immigration policies.
“This has been a massive dereliction of duty by the president,” DeSantis
said at a meeting with law enforcement officials in Sierra Vista,
Arizona, which sits close to the U.S. border with Mexico.
The victor of the Republican nominating contest will take on Democratic
President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.
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DeSantis said the flights had diverted migrants from traveling to
Florida and blamed liberal states such as California for policies that
he said encouraged illegal migration.
Last year, DeSantis arranged to transport dozens of migrants from Texas
to the Massachusetts vacation island of Martha’s Vineyard, a move that
drew applause from Republican voters during DeSantis' three-state
campaign swing last week.
Newsom, a Democrat, threatened DeSantis with kidnapping charges over
last week’s flights, calling him a “small, pathetic man” on Twitter.
California’s attorney general has said he is looking into potential
civil or criminal liability for the flights.
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![](../images/060823PIX/news_a63.jpg)
U.S. Republican presidential candidate
and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the "Roast and Ride"
event hosted by U.S. Senator Joni Ernst while campaigning in Des
Moines, Iowa, U.S. June 3, 2023. REUTERS/Dave Kaup
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Florida’s Division of Emergency Management said on Tuesday that the
migrants traveled on the flights voluntarily. In its most recent
session, the Florida legislature expanded the state’s migrant
relocation program by an additional $12 million.
During his border event, DeSantis frequently spoke of the need to
stem the flow of illegal drugs, including fentanyl, across the
border, saying communities across the nation were being affected.
“Yes, it’s a border crisis, but it’s really an American crisis,” he
said.
The border, DeSantis said, “just needs to be shut down.”
He announced that Florida would partner with sheriffs and
"like-minded" governors nationwide to provide resources to help
secure the border.
The Biden administration on Tuesday said border crossings had
dropped by more than 70% since the lifting of a pandemic-era order
known as Title 42, in spite of Republican concerns that it would
result in a flood of new migrations.
The administration credited the drop to tougher penalties for
illegal border-crossers along with new administrative pathways for
migrants seeking asylum.
(Reporting by James Oliphant in Washington; Editing by Colleen
Jenkins and Deepa Babington)
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