It turns out dumping deceived migrants in unwitting communities was just a warmup act for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The Republican presidential candidate orchestrated the unannounced delivery of dozens of migrants — twice — outside a church in Sacramento about a month ago.
He pulled the same move in Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts in September.
Those actions gained DeSantis the desired national headlines, as did his first major policy address Monday of the 2024 campaign, which laid out — surprise — a hard-line approach to illegal immigration.
Sacramento appeared to be a strategic location for at least two reasons. That put the migrants almost on the doorstep of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been waging a cross-country feud with DeSantis for more than a year. Also, Sacramento was the site of a DeSantis fundraiser last week.
The Florida governor also attended fundraisers in the Bay Area suburb of Woodside and in Fresno. (Coincidentally, DeSantis was in Northern California at the same time as President Joe Biden, who promoted climate-related spending and also attended fundraisers.)
Curiously, DeSantis made a side trip to San Francisco, where he sought to capitalize on some of the city's struggles. If beating up on California is red meat for conservatives, bashing San Francisco is filet mignon.
DeSantis even recorded a campaign ad standing on a trash-strewn San Francisco street corner next to a building covered with graffiti.
"We came in here and we saw people defecating on the street. We saw people using heroin. We saw people smoking crack cocaine," DeSantis says in the ad. "And you look around, the city is not vibrant anymore. It's really collapsed because of leftist policies, and these policies have caused people to flee this area. They don't prosecute criminals like they do in most parts of the country, and the wreckage has really, really been sad to see."
DeSantis later told the SF Gate news organization he spent all of 20 minutes in the city, but said during that time he saw the behavior he described in the ad.
In a similar, but broader ad, DeSantis seeks to juxtapose Florida, described as a growing state on the rise, against a depiction of an almost apocalyptic California. The ad effectively uses grim comments about problems in the Golden State by Newsom and other others — including San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.
"These children are witnessing drug use, violence, sex acts, public defecation and urination. . . on a daily basis," says Gloria, in a grainy video of a news conference.
The ad doesn't say so, but the Democratic mayor was explaining why he believes there's a need for an ordinance to crack down on homeless encampments in San Diego. The City Council gave final approval to the ordinance on Tuesday.
The breadth and depth of homelessness and troubles associated with it in California have been a national news story for some time. San Francisco, in particular, has been painted as a dystopian nightmare by media outlets across the country. That perspective has been bolstered by comments from DeSantis and Elon Musk.
While acknowledging San Francisco's problems, civic leaders say that narrative is overblown and they are trying to counter what they say is an inaccurate view that is harming the city, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
These direct and indirect shots at Newsom further escalate the rivalry between the two governors. Newsom has visited Florida and run ads there criticizing Republican policies he said target LGBTQ rights, voting rights, abortion, and promote book bans, among other things.
Newsom has regularly needled DeSantis, challenging the Florida governor to debate such issues. DeSantis said Newsom should "stop pussyfooting around" and run for president if he wants to engage.
Newsom's consistent flat denial that he would run hasn't quelled all the speculation that he may jump in. The California governor has become one of the more outspoken surrogates for Biden's policies and the president's re-election.
The back and forth between the two governors has left some analysts wondering whether DeSantis has been goaded into diverting his attention from his main political goals: winning the Republican nomination over Donald Trump and defeating Biden.
Returning to illegal immigration as he did Monday would seem to put DeSantis squarely on that path.
He called for ending automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants, building a wall at the southern border, mass detentions and deportations — proposals made previously by Trump.
DeSantis suggested he will succeed in areas, such as denying citizenship and completing the wall, where others have not — a notion clearly directed at Trump.
DeSantis also said he won't just send troops to the border, but order security forces to make cross-border incursions to go after drug cartels if Mexico doesn't.
Whether DeSantis' migrant drop-offs in Democratic enclaves become a regular staple of his campaign remains to be seen. Repeated use of California as a liberal bogeyman, however, seems a given, at least during the primary — even as he likely focuses less on Newsom and more on Trump and Biden.
DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have flown and bused migrants seeking asylum to Democratic areas to emphasize what they contend are ineffective Democratic border policies and to highlight some jurisdictions' status as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants. In other words, to make political points.
In most, if not all cases, the people being shipped elsewhere told officials and reporters they were promised jobs and housing, or at least a good chance of getting them. The migrants ferried courtesy of the DeSantis administration weren't even from Florida, but had been staying in Texas.
Coldhearted as those ploys seem, the public appeared to be split over Republican governors sending migrants to blue regions. Following the situation in Martha's Vineyard, a poll from The Economist/YouGov found 44 percent of Americans "somewhat" or "strongly" approved of the move, while 44 percent "somewhat" or "strongly" disapproved.
There was a large disparity between Republicans (most approved) and Democrats (most didn't).
Politics aside, local officials, church leaders and residents in the receiving communities showed grace and compassion in assisting the surprise arrivals.
Those are two words not associated with DeSantis or Abbott on this matter.
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