Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
Gov. Ron DeSantis took credit this past Wednesday for putting 50 asylum seekers from Colombia and Venezuela on two flights from Florida to the Massachusetts resort town of Martha’s Vineyard. Through an aide, the governor told Fox News he’d undertaken the move under Florida’s new “relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.”
“States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden administration’s open border policies,” the staffer added.
Neither DeSantis nor his staff offered specifics on the actual legal status of the migrants sent North, but as CBS News noted, “many migrants who cross the border illegally from Mexico are temporarily shielded from deportation after being freed by U.S. authorities to pursue asylum in immigration courts—as allowed under U.S law and international treaty—or released on humanitarian parole.”