Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) defended flying nearly 50 immigrants from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, accusing Democrats of ignoring ineffective border policies that led to his decision.
In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, DeSantis criticized Democrats for failing to be outraged at reports of immigrants drowning in the Rio Grande or dying in a tractor-trailer found in Texas but instead getting angry over his decision to transport immigrants north. His comments come just hours after Florida authorities announced they would be opening an investigation into DeSantis’s decision to transport immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard in order to determine if the immigrants are victims of a crime.
TEXAS AUTHORITIES OPEN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO DESANTIS’S MARTHA’S VINEYARD IMMIGRANT FLIGHT
“Millions of people since Biden has been president illegally coming across the southern border. Did they freak out about that? No,” DeSantis said on Hannity. “It’s only when 50 get put into Martha’s Vineyard — which wasn’t saying they didn’t want this. … They said they were a sanctuary jurisdiction.”
DeSantis approved the transport of two planes carrying almost 50 immigrants from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard last week, a high-end neighborhood that many conservatives see as synonymous with liberal elites.
The move was the latest attempt by Republican governors to bring increased attention to the immigrant crisis, following similar efforts from Texas and Arizona, which have bused immigrants from the southern border to cities such as Washington, D.C., and New York City.
“I think what we’ve been able to do is show that this border is a disaster. Biden has failed on this as much or more as any other policy,” DeSantis said. “Now, people are talking about it, and we want solutions as Americans.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar announced the investigation into the move on Monday night, saying he was told a Venezuelan immigrant was paid to “lure” immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard and successfully persuaded 48 of them. The group of immigrants was then transported to Massachusetts under “false pretenses,” he said.
DeSantis shot back at those accusations in a separate statement on Monday, noting that before the flights, immigrants were “more than willing to leave Bexar County after being abandoned, homeless, and ‘left to fend for themselves.’”
