Florida Governor Ron DeSantis boasted about his “innovative” strategy of sending two planes full of Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
“We are not a sanctuary state, and it’s better to be able to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction,” Mr DeSantis said at an event. “And yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you to be able to go to greener pastures.”
The Florida governor is up for re-election this year and is widely seen as a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. His remarks were met with applause.
Mr DeSantis faulted the Biden administration for its policies on immigration.
“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 of those people were beating their chests when Trump was president, saying they were so proud to be sanctuary jurisdictions, saying how bad it was to have a secure border, the minute even a small fraction of what those border towns deal with every day is brought to their front door, they all of a sudden go berserk.”
WCVB reported that at least two private planes began their flight in San Antonio, Texas, before going to the panhandle in Florida and then on to Martha’s Vineyard.
“We take what's happening at the southern border very seriously -- unlike some, and unlike the president of the United States, who has refused to lift a finger to secure that border,” he said.
Mr DeSantis’s spokesperson Taryn Fenske made the announcement of the flight of migrants in a video obtained by Fox News Digital. The migrants were apparently told they would be headed to Boston to receive work papers, NPR reported.
The move also comes as Texas dropped off two buses of migrants at the Naval Observatory, Vice President Kamala Harris’s home in Washington DC. Governor Greg Abbott has previously sent migrants from Texas to Washington.
