(Headline USA) Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to continue shipping illegal immigrants to Democrat cities, a spokesperson said this week, while continuing to support his state’s recovery efforts from Hurricane Ian.
DeSantis sent two planes of roughly 50 immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in September, causing an uproar among Democrat politicians and establishment media outlets. He’s faced at least one lawsuit over the move, and California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom even asked the Justice Department to launch an investigation into whether the flights constituted “human trafficking.”
But despite the pushback, DeSantis plans to keep the planes flying.
“While Florida has all hands on deck responding to our catastrophic hurricane, the immigration relocation program remains active,” DeSantis communications director Taryn Fenske said in a statement, referring to Hurricane Ian recovery efforts.
The next round of flights will take about 100 illegal immigrants to Delaware and Illinois, according to documents released on Friday.
The White House confirmed last month that it had received word that Florida intended to send a flight of migrants to an airport near President Joe Biden’s Delaware beachfront property.
“The legislature gave me $12 million. We’re going to spend every penny of that to make sure that we are protecting the people of the state of Florida,” DeSantis said last month, referring to a section of the state’s budget that allocates money toward relocating illegal immigrants out of Florida.
“We are not a sanctuary state,” he continued. “And it’s better to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction, and yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you to go to greener pastures.”
DeSantis also blasted leftists who claimed the migrant flights were illegal and inhumane.
“Biden would fly people in the middle of the night, dump them all across this country. There was no warning on any of this,” he said.
“And all those people in DC and New York were beating their chest when Trump was president saying they were so proud to be sanctuary jurisdictions, saying how bad it was to have a secure border.”
