The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, plans to proceed flying undocumented migrants to Democratic strongholds, his spokeswoman stated on Saturday, a day after launched information confirmed the state paid practically $1m to prepare two units of flights to Delaware and Illinois.
Documents launched on Friday confirmed that the deliberate flights will transport about 100 migrants. They have been scheduled for earlier than 3 October however have been halted or postponed. The contractor employed by Florida prolonged the window for the journeys till 1 December, in accordance to memos launched by the state transportation division.
Asked why the lights have been postponed, DeSantis’ communications director, Taryn Fenske, stated Florida had been busy coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.
“While Florida has had all palms on deck responding to our catastrophic hurricane, the immigration relocation program stays energetic,“ Fenske stated.
The flights can be a follow-up to 14 September flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, that carried 49 largely Venezuelan migrants to the island the place the previous president Barack Obama owns a house. Local officers weren’t informed upfront that the migrants have been coming.
DeSantis claimed accountability for the flights as a part of a marketing campaign to focus consideration on what he has referred to as the Biden administration’s failed border insurance policies. He was becoming a member of the Republican Texas governor, Greg Abbott, in sending migrants to Democratic strongholds with out advance warning.
DeSantis can also be thought probably to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Earlier this 12 months, the Florida legislature accredited a $12m price range merchandise to relocate folks from Florida to one other location. The cash got here from curiosity earned from federal funds given to Florida beneath the American Rescue Plan, laws handed to assist states get well from the Covid pandemic.
While the migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard originated in Texas, the constitution aircraft carrying them made a cease in Florida. DeSantis has stated that the migrants’ intention was to come to Florida.
The paperwork launched on Friday gave no particulars of how migrants have been recruited in San Antonio for the Martha Vineyard flights or who was employed to conduct that a part of the operation.
The Martha’s Vineyard flight has additionally spawned lawsuits accusing Florida of mendacity to the migrants to get them to agree to the flights.