Republican officials in Florida are standing up against the Biden administration’s disastrous border policies, and are defending America’s legal citizens by voting to give Governor Ron DeSantis more power to relocate illegal migrants to blue states in America.
The Florida House of Representatives voted to create a bill that establishes the Unauthorized Alien Transport Program, which provides $10 million for DeSantis to relocate illegal immigrants located in any state to any jurisdiction in the U.S. that has fallen for Biden’s destructive open-door immigration policy.
Once DeSantis signs the bill into law, it will bolster his power as Florida’s governor and enable him to face any legal challenges from his opponents.
The Unauthorized Alien Transport Program expands on the program DeSantis enacted last year that allows government officials to fly illegal immigrants to blue states that have sanctuary policies in place. In September, DeSantis flew two planes with 49 illegal immigrants from Texas to the wealthy enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in response to the Biden administration’s failed policies on immigration. The funding for the relocation came from his latest budget.
DeSantis and other state Republicans support the bill because it will help people who voluntarily want to travel to sanctuary cities. Republican Florida state Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin explained, “They’re going to get more benefits in a sanctuary state or city than they would here, and we’re simply providing them with a free ticket.”
The bill will also allow DeSantis’ administration to further expand the relocation program by granting contracts to companies that will implement its provisions. DeSantis awarded a contract to Vertol Systems to charter flights when he relocated the illegal immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.
DeSantis and his fellow Republican leaders in Florida have increased their support for relocating illegal migrants after hundreds of Cubans and Haitians arrived in the Florida Keys earlier this month. They were not authorized to enter the U.S. and made the journey to Florida in handmade boats.
The bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, pointed out during a committee hearing on the measure that “the state of Florida is currently in a state of emergency because of the ineptness and the incompetence of the federal government when it comes to immigration policy…In fact, I would say that someone should declare the federal government itself its own disaster area.”
The bill explicitly criticizes Biden’s ineffective border policies, stating, “The Federal Government has failed to secure the nation’s borders” and has “proven itself unwilling to address this crisis.”
DeSantis has no intention of shying away from the methods his administration has used to stop the damage caused by illegal migrants, especially in Florida. His conservative allies have pointed to his actions as necessary tools to draw attention to the border crisis in the GOP state