Desantis may send Haitians to liberal states

RON DESANTIS, Florida’s governor, has threatened to send refugees fleeing Haiti to Democrat-led states such as New York and California.

“Haitians land in the Florida Keys, their next stop very well may be Martha’s Vineyard,” Mr Desantis said on Tuesday, referencing the upmarket Massachusetts beach resort favoured by wealthy progressives.

The move would repeat the controversial tactic used by Mr Desantis and Greg Abbott, the Texas governor and fellow Republican, of putting undocumented migrants on buses and planes to states opposing stricter border policies.

The pair initially sent thousands of foreign citizens, from countries including Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico, north in 2022 amid claims the migrants had been misled that they would receive jobs and housing there.

It would also inject the Haiti crisis into the heart of the United States’ heated immigration debate as Republicans and Democrats blame each other for the lack of action to tackle the issue.

Although it has yet to materialise, there are fears that the bloodshed and anarchy gripping Haiti could spark a new wave of refugees braving the 600mile journey to Florida.

Meanwhile, the violence in the stricken Caribbean nation is not letting up, as negotiations to name the seven members of the Us-backed transitional “presidential council” to temporarily rule Haiti appear to have stalled.

Bodies and burning rubbish dot the streets of the capital, Port-au-prince, while a large proportion of the population of 11 million go without the food aid on which they depend. Yesterday, four people were shot dead, three of them believed to be gang members, as police repulsed an armed attack on the central bank.

Meanwhile, Ezechiel “Ze” Alexandre, a gang leader, appeared to make a power play as he led residents to retake the Carrefour Feuilles neighbourhood in Port-au-prince from the rival Ti Lapli gang, which had occupied it in recent days.

Video on social media showed Alexandre, one of the nearly 4,000 prisoners who escaped from the country’s largest jail two weeks ago, leading a large, unarmed crowd as they marched back into the neighbourhood.

Despite the apparently peaceful nature of the event, Alexandre had been in jail on suspicion of crimes including murder, rape and armed robbery.