South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
DeSantis escalates border war with Biden
Governor calls for $8M for removal of migrants
Gov. Ron DeSantis continued his war of words with the Biden administration over border policies Friday by calling for $8 million in excess federal funds to be used for the removal of undocumented migrants from Florida.
The proposal was just one part of a series of legislative actions he called for at a news conference at the Jacksonville International Airport, including punishing private companies for bringing undocumented migrants into Florida and expanding the definition of “sanctuary cities.”
DeSantis railed against what he called the “Biden border crisis.” The actual number of asylum seekers and migrants entering Florida remains unclear and the Biden administration has reinstated the Remain in Mexico policy implemented by the Trump administration.
“In yesterday’s budget, I put in $8 million dollars for us to be able to transport people [here] illegally out of the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.
According to DeSantis’ proposed budget, the money would be part of nearly $16.5 million generated from interest earnings from the state’s portion of the federal American Rescue Plan, pushed for by Biden and passed in March without any Republican votes.
DeSantis referenced Biden’s home state by alleging, “if you sent [migrants] to Delaware or Martha’s Vineyard or some of these places, that border would be secure the next day. But instead, they’re imposing the results of their policies on states like Florida, who they love to hate or whatever.”
DeSantis also called for legislation barring any contractors “who were involved in ferrying people, whether it’s buses, charter planes, any of those folks who are involved in facilitating this type of illegal migration in the state of Florida,” from receiving any state contracts.
DeSantis also wants private companies to pay the state restitution for each person that they’re “facilitating” or “harboring.”
Democrats immediately blasted the proposals as fodder for his political ambitions. DeSantis is widely seen as someone who might challenge Biden for the presidency in 2024.
“This is basically $8 million for his political campaign,” Orlando Rep. Anna Eskamani told the Miami Herald. “There are some serious human rights concerns. Are you going to put someone in a car and drive them to Delaware? ... State officials are not trained on any
type of immigration enforcement.”
The governor also wanted to expand the definition of what the state considers “sanctuary cities.”
Even as laws were approved over the past few years punishing cities or counties for not cooperating with federal law enforcement over immigration issues, no city or county actually called itself a sanctuary city as some other cities around the country have done.
But DeSantis said that he wants any local government that doesn’t cooperate with state law enforcement in its immigration investigations to be considered as having a “sanctuary policy.”
He also said he wants the state Department of Economic Opportunity to be able to enforce the state’s E-Verify law, which requires companies to use a federal database to prevent hiring undocumented workers. The law has been criticized as being watered down by the state’s powerful agriculture industry, which relies on such workers to harvest crops.
While federal law allows migrants to seek asylum and get a hearing, DeSantis dismissed that idea.
“Most of the people that are coming are basically economic migrants, they are claiming asylum, but they don’t qualify for asylum,” he said, comparing allowing them to remain in the country while awaiting a hearing to bank robbers scheduling their own trials.
DeSantis has been making the border situation a major issue for months now, including sending Florida law enforcement to the Mexican border. The Miami Herald reported that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement spent more than $1.6 million in tax dollars for the weeks-long commitment, including salaries, travel costs, supplies and equipment.
PolitiFact has previously called DeSantis’ claims that migrants at the southern border were the cause of the COVID rise in Florida over the summer as “false,” pointing out that Biden had actually been continuing the stringent policy former President Trump put in place at the beginning of the pandemic.