Ron DeSantis breaks his silence on funding ‘highly effective’ migrant flights from Texas to Sacramento
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has broken his silence on funding migrant flights from Texas to Sacramento, arguing that states like California and New York should bear the brunt of “open borders.”
On Tuesday, his administration admitted helping to transport migrants to Sacramento from Texas, releasing footage of the migrants being transported by private jet.
During a trip to the southern border on Wednesday, the presidential candidate said he would continue to support states that would not provide refuge for migrants.
DeSantis said, “If there is a policy to have an open border, then I think the sanctuary jurisdictions should be the ones to carry that.
“We’re not a Florida haven, we know people want to come and so the more we can divert before we even need to get there is good for our state.”
Governor DeSantis, pictured here last week, said he would continue to support states that would not provide refuge for migrants.
Migrants of different nationalities rest in a temporary camp, in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico, May 22, 2023
He continued, “California, they have a big budget deficit and we have a big budget surplus and so we can do things like support the police and help Texas.
“If a Texas sheriff asks for our support, we see it as an American problem. We don’t just see it as a problem in Texas. We want to help with that.’
The Florida Division of Emergency Management released footage of the migrants being transported on a private jet, listening to music, signing waivers and appearing to be enjoying themselves.
“We made it to California,” one alleged migrant said in a selfie video that revealed behind him the turboprop de Havilland plane he and the others had arrived on.
“Thank God, very thankful to God,” he said in Spanish as he stood on the tarmac of Sacramento Executive Airport.
In an accompanying statement, Alecia Collins, the department’s director of communications, said the move was consensual. “As you can see in this video, Florida’s voluntary move is just that: voluntary,” she wrote.
It is not clear exactly who took the videos and photos, but some appear to have been taken by the alleged migrants themselves.
None of the people shown in the video have been identified and the video has no description.
Other parts show the alleged migrants cheering in the back of a bus, singing along to music and showing peace signs with their hands.
In part of the video, a man records himself getting off a plane and thanking God while standing on the tarmac in what appears to be Sacramento Executive Airport.
In a statement accompanying the footage, a spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management said the move was voluntary
California officials said on Tuesday that the transportation of the migrants was facilitated by Vertol Systems Company
At one point, as they seem to congregate in a briefing room, they are asked in Spanish, “Have you ever felt that you were treated badly?”
“No, they treated us very well,” one person responds.
The Florida governor’s transportation of some three dozen migrants to California is the latest move in which asylum seekers who entered through the southern border have been moved north to Democrat-led “sanctuary cities.”
California, a sanctuary state, is investigating “state-sanctioned kidnapping” after the 16 migrants were dropped on the steps of a Sacramento church without “advance warning.”
California officials said Tuesday that the transportation of the migrants was facilitated by Vertol Systems Company, a private company that also arranged planeloads of Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard last year.
More than a dozen Venezuelan and Colombian migrants who entered the US via Texas were transported by private plane to Sacramento, California, and departed outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, pictured
California Governor Newsom tweeted at Ron DeSantis on Monday saying, ‘you little pathetic man’
The migrants, mostly from Venezuela but also from Colombia, arrived in Sacramento, California’s capital, on two flights – the first with 16 on Friday and another with 20 on Monday.
California Governor Gavin Newsom attacked DeSantis on Monday, calling him a “little pathetic man” and threatening kidnapping charges against his government on Twitter.
He said he was working with the California Department of Justice to determine if there was anything criminal about the orchestration of the flights.
In Tuesday’s statement, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management suggested that the criticism from California officials was unfair.
“From leftist mayors in El Paso, Texas, and Denver, Colorado, the displacement of those illegally crossing the United States border is not new,” the statement read.
“But suddenly when Florida sends illegal aliens to sanctuary, it’s false imprisonment and kidnapping.”