FL Can Relocate Migrants Out Of State Under Law Signed By DeSantis

FLORIDA — Immigration advocacy groups are calling foul after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed new legislation into law Wednesday to strengthen his migrant relocation initiative.

Senate Bill 6-B, the Unauthorized Alien Transport Program, was passed by the Florida Legislature Friday with 77 votes in favor to 34 against following last week's special session. It puts an additional $10 million in state tax money toward the effort to relocate immigrants entering the country illegally.

The law reinforces the governor's authority to fly migrants from any part of the U.S. to sanctuary cities or states in the hopes of stemming legal challenges to the initiative by immigration advocacy groups and Florida Democrats who questioned whether DeSantis had the legal authority to use tax money to relocate immigrants from states other than Florida.

Related:

• 'Overwhelming' Numbers Of Cubans Make 94-Mile Trip To FL, Democracy
• Lawsuit Targets FL On Behalf Of Refugees Given 'False Promises'
• DeSantis Migrant Flights: Investigation Sought Into Public Money Spent
• DeSantis Flies Undocumented Immigrants To Martha's Vineyard
• Martha's Vineyard Migrants Will Shelter At Cape Base: Charlie Baker

Republican House Speaker Paul Renner forwarded passage of the legislation prior to the state of the 2023 legislative session next month to make "sure that the governor has the maximum authority” to slow immigration into the state.

“He has not only a right but a duty to protect the citizens of Florida from the burden of illegal immigration. It is a huge tax on hospitals, on schools, on all of that,” said during a news conference. “But, beyond that, we see the entrance of fentanyl in massive quantities, we see clear evidence of human trafficking in women and children being brought across the border. It’s a terrible, terrible situation, all brought on by the lack of leadership at the federal level. What we’re doing is simply saying, ‘Look, the states have got to step in and make sure that we give our governors the maximum tools to address this issue."

The initiative first passed by the Legislature during the 2022 legislative session received national publicity in September after DeSantis had 50 undocumented immigrants seeking asylum from Venezuela's dictatorial regime flown in two private charter planes from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, using a portion of a $12 million taxpayer funds authorized by the 2022 Legislature.

DeSantis said he received information that the migrants were headed to Florida and sent agents to San Antonio, promising jobs and housing in exchange if the migrants would sign documents volunteering to be flown to Martha's Vineyard.

The planeloads appeared on the small Massachusetts island where former Democratic President Barack Obama has a home without notice, sending aid workers scrambling to provide them with food and shelter.

DeSantis said his actions were in response to Biden administration's lax policies that have allowed thousands of undocumented immigrants to flood U.S. borders.

The state paid $32,000 per person to relocate the immigrants to Martha's Vineyard.

Florida Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Miami, has filed a lawsuit challenging the initiative but said he expects it will be thrown out under the newly implemented law. Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper has set the next hearing in the case for March 8.

Three of the Venezuelan immigrants have also filed suit claiming DeSantis' representatives made false promises. In fact, there is no funding for jobs or housing for migrants who have not been given political asylum, a process that could take years.

“We are sad, angry and worried, but unfortunately not surprised. With this bill’s passing, Florida has cemented itself as a cruel and unwelcoming place for families that are seeking safety from dictatorial regimes," said Afifa Khaliq, chairman of the Florida Immigrant Coalition said in a statement.

“It’s shameful that the Florida Legislature would waste taxpayer dollars to hunt down and relocate immigrants across the country to further Gov. Ron DeSantis’s anti-immigrant agenda and political aspirations,” A.J. Hernandez Anderson, senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project, said in another statement.

Pointing to the recent wave of immigrants fleeing Cuba on dilapidated vessels across the Florida Straits, Florida Rep. Marie Paule Woodon, D-Miami, herself an immigrant from Haiti, called the law inhumane.

“Immigrants and asylum seekers are human beings and they need to be treated as such. They are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and friends,” she said on Friday, arguing against passage of the bill. “Where is the humanity? Where is the understanding that these people are not leaving their homes to come here for a vacation? They are leaving because they are fleeing persecution, violence, crime, atrocities, rape, dictatorship insecurity, poverty, and you name it.”

House minority leader, state Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said instead of addressing the long-term issue, DeSantis is using the immigrants as political pawns.

“I think this is yet another way for the governor as he tries to extend nationally to pick winners and losers and punish certain states, all of which seem to be blue states, in his effort to gain a bigger profile," she said.

In the meantime, the U.S. Border Patrol reported Wednesday that it has had 64,000 encounters with undocumented immigrants in the past two weeks with 162 assaults on border patrol agents already this year. Since Jan. 1, the border patrol apprehended 3,043 people crossing the border who had serious criminal histories including 10 with homicide or manslaughter convictions and 73 with sexual offense convictions.

And overnight, Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents encountered a migrant carrying 93 pounds of fentanyl. So far this year, the border patrol has seized more than 476 pounds of fentanyl between the ports of entry along the Southwest border, enough to kill 100 million people with fatal overdoses.

"The amount of combative encounters has become a problem," the border patrol posted on its Facebook page with a photo showing a bloody head wound on a border patrol agent. "Keeping dangerous people out of our communities is a priority."

On Tuesday, the border patrol posted video showing a long line of migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti who crossed into Laredo, Texas, being swiftly expelled to Mexico.