Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is equating the Biden administration with human smugglers for the way he said it moves illegal immigrants throughout the country in the dead of the night with no explanations offered.
During a Monday appearance on “The Ingraham Angle,” DeSantis explained why states far from the southern border are feeling the impact of illegal immigrants flooding into America.
“So, the border is obviously a disaster and some people say, ‘Well, that’s a problem for Texas or Arizona.’ Well, actually, the Biden administration puts people on planes and flies them into Florida in the wee hours of the morning. They’ve done over 70 flights in the last six months, dump people here,” DeSantis said, citing a report by his office, according to Fox News.
“And we had — a few weeks ago — one of those people that Biden dumped ended up committing a murder in northeast Florida. So, these are crimes that would not have happened but for Biden’s recklessness.”
Last month, a grand jury indicted Yery Noel Medina Ulloa, a 24-year-old illegal Honduran immigrant, for first-degree murder after Francisco Javier Cuellar was fatally stabbed in his home Oct. 7 in Jacksonville, the New York Post reported. The outlet said Ulloa allegedly originally lied to authorities and claimed to be a minor.
Police believe Ulloa was on the flights DeSantis has criticized.
DeSantis wondered how President Joe Biden would like illegal immigrants dumped in his hometown, and said he might do something about it.
“So, our view is, if they’re going to be dumping, we want to be able to facilitate transfer to places like Delaware, and, so, we have $8 million in my new budget to be able to do that,” the governor told Fox News.
DeSantis said those who ship illegal immigrants all over might pay a price.
“We also look to these carriers that the federal government is contracting with, and we are going to pass legislation that says, ‘If you are facilitating Biden’s policies, which is effectively a mass human smuggling operation, you are not going to be able to do business with the state of Florida or other local governments, and we are going to charge you restitution for each individual that you are bringing,’” he said.
The Biden administration’s shuttling of illegal immigrants has been reported multiple times by media outlets.
In May, WCRB-TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee, reported on the surreptitious strategy taking place there, in which migrant children who were flown in overnight were later bused to cities in Florida and Texas.
In August, neighbors of the airport in Abilene, Texas, reported to KTAB-TV that Biden administration officials were using it as a jumping-off point to fly illegal immigrants to points unknown across the country.
In October, the New York Post reported that more than 2,000 illegal immigrants had landed in Westchester County since August.
The Jacksonville flights began this fall, according to Florida officials.
“Over 70 air charter flights [on] jetliner airliners coming from the southwest border have landed at Jacksonville International Airport,” said Larry Keefe, Florida’s public safety czar, according to the Washington Examiner. “On average, there’s 36 passengers on each of these flights. And that has been going on over the course of the summer through September.”
Keefe said the Biden administration was stonewalling the state when it sought answers.
Earlier this month, Mark VanLoh of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority said that a locked plane loaded with illegal immigrant children was left on the tarmac for almost half a day in June, according to WJXX-TV.
“The flight crew had already left for hotels that night, leaving the plane full of children, with chaperones, on board for 10 hours,” VanLoh said.
Florida Republican Congressmen Daniel Webster, Byron Donalds and members of the Florida Delegation last month sent a letter to Biden asking for information on the reported secret flights of illegal immigrants to their state, according to Webster’s website.
The delegation said it was awaiting a response.
In late September, DeSantis announced a lawsuit against the Biden administration in regard to its so-called catch and release immigration policy, according to CNN.
The suit said that under “catch and release,” migrants who are “illegally released” by the administration are “arriving or will arrive in Florida, harming the State’s quasi-sovereign interests and forcing it to incur millions of dollars in expenses,” CNN reported.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.