Florida lawmakers expand DeSantis program flying immigrants to blue states
Misty Severi
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The Florida state legislature passed a bill Friday that expands Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) migrant transportation program sending immigrants who entered the United States illegally to “sanctuary” cities and states.
The new bill creates the “Unauthorized Alien Transport Program,” which was passed during a special session of the legislature. The bill allows Florida to send immigrants in any state to liberal areas. A record number of immigrants illegally entered the country last year.
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“People are sick of having an open border with no rule of law in this country,” DeSantis said at a news conference last week. “We can just sit here and do nothing about it or we can actually stand up and say, ‘Whatever tools we have at our disposal, we are going to be using.’”
The original program was established by DeSantis last year.
The bill passed both state houses along party lines and is now heading to DeSantis’s desk, where he is expected to review and sign the legislation. Legislative leaders called for a two-week special session last week to consider bolstering the flight program and address election laws and Disney’s self-governing Reedy Creek Improvement District.
The legislation comes after DeSantis’s office orchestrated two flights that carried nearly 50 illegal immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, last year.
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DeSantis and the state are facing multiple lawsuits over the flights, which follow similar efforts from Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and former Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ), who decided to bus illegal immigrants from their states to the liberal cities, including New York City and Washington, D.C.
Just since last spring, 43,000 immigrants have arrived in New York City, according to the New York Post, with 28,400 living in 83 hotels, five “Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers,” and the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.