Florida governor vows to fight migrant-dropoff plan
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s governor plans to fight any federal plans to fly hundreds of immigrants weekly from the Mexico border to South Florida, saying Friday that he’ll take his case to President Donald Trump.
Republican Gov. Ron Desantis made his remarks a day after being caught off guard when Broward and Palm Beach county officials said they had been notified by the U.S. Border Patrol that about 1,000 migrants per month would be sent to the two counties starting in about two weeks.
Federal officials said Friday that there are no immediate plans to fly migrants to Florida.
In San Diego, interim Border Patrol sector chief Douglas Harrison said Friday that the agency was flying migrants to his location, but was still considering whether to add flights to the Detroit; Buffalo, New York; and Miami sectors. The agency’s Miami sector includes all of South Florida.
Harrison said the agency was exploring issues including the availability of airports and the capacity of charitable groups to provide migrants with temporary assistance.
The federal government has run out of space to process the thousands of migrants who have been arriving at the Texas border, forcing them to fly migrants to Border Patrol facilities in other locations for processing. Once processed, they are released and given a court date in a city where they plan to reside, often with family members. That could be anywhere in the U.S., and many of them would in any case be heading to Latino communities in Florida.
Desantis told reporters he was unaware of any moves to start flights to Florida until county officials reported that to the media Thursday. He said such flights would amount to “dumping” migrants on Florida.
“I think it will tax our resources, the schools, the health care, law enforcement, state agencies,” Desantis said. “It’s gonna ultimately be something I’m going to have to talk to the president about.”